^ijJi 


LIBRARY 

I      UNIVERSITY  OP     j 
V       CALIFORNIA/ 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON. 


Copyright,  1903, 

By  M.  M.  belcher  PUBLISHING  CO. 


E3R 


PREFACE.       Y.l 


THE  plan  of  the  present  work,  in  the  revised  and 
enlarged  form  now  offered  to  the  public,  is  that 
of  an  attempt  to  adequately  bring  out  all  the 
facts  bearing  upon  the  origin  of  the  United  States 
of  America  within  the  period  covered  by  the  active 
career  of  Washington;  and  with  this  to  show,  in  the 
clearest  light  possible,  the  character,  conduct,  services, 
and  political  ideals  of  Washington;  his  youth  and  educa- 
tion ;  his  activity  and  development  from  sixteen  to  nine- 
teen years  of  age ;  his  immediate  entrance  upon  public 
service  and  attainment  of  distinction ;  his  important  mili- 
tary position  and  experience  while  yet  a  very  young  man ; 
his  remarkable  eminence  and  services  as  a  Colonial  soldier 
in  Virginia,  then  the  foremost  of  the  American  colonies ; 
his  fearless  recognition  of  the  issues  of  liberty  under  the 
oppressive  attempts  of  the  ministers  of  the  British  King; 
his  leadership  in  the  Virginia  demonstrations  of  protest 
preparatory  to  revolution ;  his  position  as  the  first  soldier 
of  the  Continent  in  the  earliest  Congress  of  the  Colonies ; 
his  unanimous  recognition  by  the  Congress  as  before  all 
others  in  military  and  political  weight,  and  his  appointment 
as  American  Commander-in-Chief ;  his  conduct  of  the  Rev- 
olution, both  in  military  service  of  the  highest  character 
and  in  constant  sagacious  counsel  and  effective  influence, 
accomplishing  more  than  all  others  together  in  the  main- 
tenance and  direction  of  an  otherwise  hopeless  cause ;  the 
supreme   significance  and  weight   of  his  thought  in  the 

iii 


063 


iv  PREFACE. 

making  of  the  Constitution  and  the  bringing  together 
under  it  of  Colonies  not  yet  educated  to  faith  in  a  Union ; 
and  the  final  service  and  climax  of  his  unsurpassed  career 
in  two  Presidencies,  based  on  principles  of  National  out- 
look and  union  prophetic  of  the  rise  of  the  United  States 
to  the  highest  rank  of  world  power. 

The  "  Lives  of  Washington  "  thus  far  available  for  the 
interest  and  instruction  of  the  public  have  in  important 
respects  come  a  good  deal  short  of  telling,  sufficiently  and 
correctly,  all  parts  of  the  great  story  of  Washington,  and 
still  more  have  they  failed  to  apply  adequate  discrimina- 
tion to  the  manifestations  in  Washington  of  intellectual 
genius,  and  noble  character,  of  the  very  highest  type.  In 
the  case  even  of  Irving's  interesting  and  valuable  "  Life," 
the  literary  felicity  and  general  spirit  with  which  the  work 
was  executed  left  something  to  be  desired  in  the  method 
and  scope  of  the  narrative ;  and  for  the  matter  which  is 
throughout  of  highest  interest,  Washington's  complex  and 
unsurpassed  character,  his  greatness  intellectually,  and 
as  a  soldier  and  statesman,  Irving's  study  in  this  direction 
was  less,  full  and  thorough  than  so  great  a  theme  seems 
now  to  require,  in  view  of  the  course  of  popular  discus- 
sion from  1889  to  the  present  time.  Tlie  Schroeder- 
Lossing  "  Life  and  Times,"  of  which  the  present  work  is 
an  expansion  and  revision,  was  of  special  value  because  of 
its  large  scope,  and  still  more  from  its  constant  attention 
to  just  appreciation  of  Washington's  very  exceptional 
character,  and  the  greatness  everywhere  implied  in  the 
true  story  of  his  career. 

Several  recent  works  have  aimed,  more  or  less  openly, 
to  apply  a  method  of  detraction  to  the  character  of  Wash- 
ington, and  to  reduce  his  greatness  to  the  common  level, 
upon  the  theory  that  we  gain  a  man  while  we  lose  a  hero. 
The  utterances  brought  out  by  the  Centennial  celebrations 


PREFACE.  V 

which  culminated  in  that  of  1889  at  New  York  were 
almost  universally  at  the  level  of  exceedingly  deficient 
knowledge  and  profoundly  unfortunate  misapprehension, 
even  on  the  part  of  men  of  high  representative  position 
and  character.  An  edition  of  the  writings  of  Washington 
under  the  editorship  of  Mr.  W.  C.  Ford,  begun  in  1888, 
was  executed  on  lines  deliberately  and  avowedly  intended 
to  bring  Washington  down  from  his  high  historic  pedestal ; 
and  in  sequel  to  this  Mr.  Ford's  brother  undertook  a 
popular  volume,  designed  to  reduce  Washington  from  the 
heroic,  almost  godlike  level,  to  that  of  a  common  his- 
torical character.  To  go  back  to  the  Schroeder-Lossing 
narrative  is  in  itself  to  most  effectively  expose  at  once 
the  singular  ignorance  and  the  inexpHcable  wrong 
of  any  "  True  George  Washington "  story,  or  study  of 
character,  which  fails  to  carry  to  the  greatest  monumental 
height  appreciation  of  the  unparalleled  man  which  Wash- 
ington was,  and  the  unapproachable  services  which  he 
rendered  as  soldier  and  statesman,  to  America  and  to 
mankind. 

The  thorough  revision  under  which  the  work  is  now 
given  an  expanded  form,  to  make  a  complete  text-book 
of  knowledge  not  less  important  than  intensely  interesting, 
has  aimed  to  strengthen  the  proof  that  the  worship  almost 
by  the  fathers  of  Washington  was  but  simple  justice,  and 
that  lapse  of  time  but  casts  new  light  on  the  colossal  and 
splendid  figure  which  Washington  must  ever  be  in  the 
history  truly  told. 

It  has  been  particularly  sought  to  make  as  perfect  as 
possible  from  our  latest  knowledge  the  panorama  of 
events  and  of  contemporary  characters,  which  make  the 
times  and  the  scenes  of  the  career  of  Washington  forever 
unique  in  interest  and  instruction.  There  are  characters 
in  the  great  story  who  had  their  meed  of  praise  locally 


Vi  PREFACE. 

and  for  the  time,  and  the  tradition  of  whose  fame  still 
commands  the  popular  ear,  in  disregard  to  some  extent 
of  the  issues  of  the  history  and  the  final  verdict  of  truth 
and  justice;  while  on  other  characters,  and  before  all  on 
Washington  himself,  in  the  various  stages  of  his  activity 
and  the  various  aspects  of  his  character,  has  not  yet  fallen 
the  full  light  of  exact  knowledge  and  critical  discrimina- 
tion. The  current  story  of  Washington's  education,  his 
attention  to  surveying,  and  his  miHtary  service  in  Virginia 
during  several  eventful  years,  has  either  been  wrongly 
told  or  has  not  been  told  at  all.  An  adequate,  as  well  as 
accurate,  account  of  Washington  as  a  youth,  from  his 
father's  death  to  his  earliest  military  employment,  and  as 
a  character  of  distinction  and  a  military  commander  for 
the  seven  years  preceding  his  marriage,  is  given  for  the 
first  time  in  the  following  pages,  in  the  passages  added  by 
the  present  writer. 

And  not  the  least  important  of  the  aims  of  the  work  as 
now  offered  to  the  public,  is  that  of  presenting  the  facts 
in  such  a  light  of  equal  justice  to  the  contrasted  forms 
of  culture  and  civilization,  of  society  and  political  order, 
pecuHar  on  the  one  hand  to  New  England  and  the  North, 
and  on  the  other  to  Virginia  and  the  South,  as  to  promote 
a  clear  understanding  of  all  the  issues  of  early  American 
history,  through  which  have  been  reached  the  develop- 
ments of  the  Twentieth  Century  —  that  "great  empire, 
.  .  .  stupendous  fabric  of  freedom  and  empire,  .  .  . 
an  asylum  for  the  poor  and  oppressed  of  all  nations  and  re- 
ligions," whereof  Virginia's  incomparable  son,  and  he  alone, 
had  clear  vision. 

EDWARD  C.  TOWNE. 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 


PART  L 

Washington's  Ancestors  and  Boyhood. 
1657-1751. 

CHAP.  PAGE. 

I.  His  Birth  and  Ancestors    i 

11.  Early  Days  of  Washington    15 

III.  Incidents  of  His  Youth   52 

IV.  His  Voyage  to  Barbadoes  89 


PART  II. 

Washington's  Military  Appointments. 

1751-1758. 

I.  Washington   a    Major    97 

II.  Washington's   First   Battle    174 

III.  Washington's    Capitulation   of   Fort   Necessity    182 

IV.  Defense  of  the  Colonies    202 

V.  Washington  at  the  Battle  of  the  Monongahela 214 

VI.  Washington  the   Virginia    Commander-in-Chief    250 

VII.  Campaign  of  1758  —  Washington's  Marriage 391 

[vii] 


CONTENTS. 


PART  HI. 

Washington  During  the  Opening  Scenes  of  the 
Revolution. 

1759-1775. 

CHAP.  PAGE. 

I.Washington  in   Retirement  —  Campaign  of   1759 451 

II.  Life  at  Mount  Vernon   470 

III.  Causes  of  the  Revolution   487 

IV.  The  Revolutionary  Storm  Increasing 521 

V.Washington's   Plan   of   Association 541 

VI.  Discontents  Producing  Violence  and  Bloodshed 563 

VII.  Washington  Visits  the  Western  Country  569 

VIII.  Political  Union  of  the  Colonies  584 

IX.  Washington  a  Politician   599 

X.  Washington  a  Member  of  the  Continental  Congress 649 

XL  Washington  a  Member  of  the  Virginia  Convention 678 

XII.  Partisan  Warfare   707 


PART  IV. 

Washington  Continental  Commander-in-Chief. 

1775-1783. 

I.  The  Continental  Congress  Appoints  Washington  Com- 
mander-in-Chief for  All  the  Colonies 718 

11.  The  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill 741 

III.  Washington  Takes  Command  of  the  Continental  Army,  772 

IV.  Washington  Sends  a  Detachment  to  Canada  809 

V.  Washington  Expels  the  British  from  Boston 822 


CONTENTS,  ix 

CHAP.  PAGE. 

VI.  Washington  in  New  York  875 

VII.  Washington   Crosses  the  Hudson 932 

VIII.  Washington's  Masterly  Retreat  through  the  Jerseys. .  971 

IX.  The  Battles  of  Trenton  and  Princeton 987 

X.  Lord  Howe  Outgeneraled  by  Washington 1017 

XL  Washington  Holds  Howe  in  Check 1069 

XII.  Burgoyne's   Defeat  and   Surrender 1105 

XIII.  Washington   at  Valley   Forge 1149 

XIV.  The  Battle  of  Monmouth 1191 

XV.  Washington  Directs  a  Descent  on  Rhode  Island 1213 

XVI.  Washington  Prepares  to  Chastise  the  Indians 1237 

XVII.  Washington's  Operations  in  the  Northern  States 1255 

XVIII.  Campaign  in  the  North  —  Arnold's  Treason 1281 

XIX.  Operations  at  the  South 1313 

XX.  Preparations   for  a   New   Campaign 1360 

XXI.  The  Campaign  at  the  South 1377 

XXII.  Continuation  of  the  Campaign  at  the  South  1398 

XXIII.  Washington    Captures    Cornwallis 1412 

XXIV.  Final  Events  of  the  Revolution 1442 


PART  V. 

Washington  a  Private  Citizen. 
1783-1788. 

I.  Washington's  Return  to  Private  Life 1509 

11.  Washington  President  of  the  Constitutional  Convention,  1527 


X  CONTENTS, 

PART  VI. 

Washington  as  President  and  in  Retirement. 
1789-1799. 

CHAP.  PAGE. 

I.  Washington    Elected    First    President    of    the    United 

States    1579 

II.  Washington's    Inauguration    and    First    Administration 

Formed    1594 

TIL  Measures  for  Establishing  the  Public  Credit   1657 

IV.  Establishment  of  a  National  Bank 1698 

V.  Political    Parties  Developed    1725 

VI.  Washington  Inaugurates  the   System  of  NeutraHty 1775 

VII.  Washington  Sends  Jay  to  England   1822 

VIII.  Washington  Quells  the  Western  Insurrection 1847 

IX.  Washington  Signs  Jay's   Treaty    1867 

X.  Washington  Maintains    the    Treaty-Making    Power    of 

the   Executive   1896 

XI.  Washington  Retires  from  the  Presidency  1922 

XII.  Washington  Appointed    Lieutenant- General    1969 

XIII.  Last  Illness,  Death,  and  Character  of  Washington 1994 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Vol.  I. 

PAGE. 

Washington Frontispiece. 

Washington's  Interview  with  His  Mother 32 

Washington's   First  Interview   with   Mrs.   Curtis,   after- 
wards Mrs.  Washington 64 

Martha  Washington    9^ 

Washington  on  His  Mission  to  the  Ohio 128 

Braddock's  Retreat   160 

Patrick  Henry   192 

Boston  Massacre   224 

Battle  of  Lexington 256 

Retreat  of  the  British  from  Concord 288 

Samuel  Adams    320 

Joseph  Warren  352 

Washington  Taking  Command  of  the  Army 384 

Richard  Montgomery  416 

Vol.  II. 

Washington  in  1775  Frontispiece. 

General  Israel  Putnam  496 

Drafting  the  Declaration  of  Independence 528 

Benjamin  Franklin   560 

The  Death  Warrant  of  Major  Andre 592 

First  Meeting  of  Washington  and  Hamilton 624 

Surrender  of  Col.  Rahl  at  the  Battle  of  Trenton 656 

Washington  at  the  Battle  of  Princeton 688 

Major-General  Henry  Knox 720 

Sergeant  Molly  at  the  Battle  of  Monmouth 768 

[»] 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS, 

PAGB. 

Baron  De  Kalb  Introducing  Lafayette  to  Silas  Deane 8x6 

Lady  Ackland's  Visit  to  the  Camp  of  General  Gates 864 

Battle  of  Saratoga 912 

Valley  Forge  —  Washington  and  Lafayette 944 

Vol.  III. 

Washington  at  Trenton    Frontispiece. 

Major-General  Baron  Steuben  1008 

Philip  Schuyler   1040 

Horatio  Gates   1072 

Battle  of  Germantown 1104 

Treason  of  Arnold 1 152 

Robert  Morris    1200 

Lee's  Cavalry  Skirmishing  at  the  Battle  of  Guilford 1248 

General  Francis  Marion 1296 

Major-General  Nathanael  Greene 1344 

Alexander  Hamilton   1392 

Robert  R.  Livingston 1440 

Vol.   IV. 

Washington  as  President  Frontispiece. 

Washington's  Farewell  to  His  Officers 1536 

Lafayette   1568 

John  Jay 1600 

Inauguration  of  Washington 1632 

The  First  Cabinet 1680 

John  Hancock  1728 

John  Adams 1776 

Washington  and  Family  at  Mount  Vernon 1824 

Chief  Justice  John  Marshall 1872 

Thomas  Jefferson 1920 

Henry  Laurens  1968 


PART    1. 
HIS  ANCESTORS  AND  BOYHOOD. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HIS  BIRTH  AND  ANCESTORS. 

1657-1739. 

THE  eventful  times  of  Washington  may  well  arrest 
the  thoughts  of  every  one  who  is  interested  in  the 
origin  and  destiny  of  our  republic.  And  the  com- 
bination of  causes  which  made  this  illustrious  man  the 
master-spirit  of  his  day,  and  the  very  impersonation  of 
the  great  principles  which  he  asserted,  is  a  pleasing  indi- 
cation of  what  may  be  regarded  as  not  a  merely  fortuitous, 
but  a  divinely  ordered,  series  of  events,  having  for  their 
ultimate  object  the  general  welfare  of  humanity. 

Among  leaders  and  rulers  of  nations  there  is  not  an- 
other who  has  illustrated,  in  so  happy  a  manner,  the  vir- 
tues and  obligations  both  of  private  and  public  life,  and 
who  has  afforded  so  suitable  an  example  for  imitation  in 
those  virtues  and  obligations,  on  the  part  of  every  citizen, 
from  the  most  secluded  member  of  society  to  the  most  con- 
spicuous man  of  mark  in  council  or  in  the  field. 

One  of  the  most  eminent  living  statesmen  of  England 
has  said,  "  He  was  the  greatest  man  of  our  own  or  any 
age ;  the  only  one  upon  whom  an  epithet  so  thoughtlessly 
lavished  by  men,  to  foster  the  crimes  of  their  worst  ene- 
mies, may  be  innocently  and^justly  bestowed."  "  It  will 
be  the  duty  of  the  historian  and  the  sage,  in  all  ages,  to  let 
no  occasion  pass  of  commemorating  this  illustrious  man ; 
and,  until  time  shall  be  no  more,  will  a  test  of  the  progress 
which  our  race  has  made  in  wisdom  and  in  virtue,  be 


2  WASHINGTON. 

derived  from  the  veneration  paid  to  the  immortal  name  of 
Washington."'^  And  one  of  the  chief  of  our  Revolutionary 
worthies,  who  enjoyed  every  opportunity  to  form  a  proper 
estimate  of  the  quaHties  which  he  commends,  says :  "  If 
we  look  over  the  catalogue  of  the  first  magistrates  of 
nations,  whether  they  have  been  denominated  presidents 
or  consuls,  kings  or  princes,  where  shall  we  find  one  whose 
commanding  talents  and  virtues,  whose  overruling  good 
fortune,  have  so  completely  united  all  hearts  and  voices 
in  his  favor,  who  enjoyed  the  esteem  and  admiration  of 
foreign  nations  and  fellow  citizens  with  equal  unanimity? 
Qualities  so  uncommon  are  no  common  blessings  to  the 
country  that  possesses  them.  By  these  great  qualities  and 
their  benign  effects  has  Providence  marked  out  the  head 
of  this  nation,  with  a  hand  so  distinctly  visible  as  to  have 
been  seen  by  all  men  and  mistaken  by  none."  "  His  ex- 
ample is  complete,  and  it  will  teach  wisdom  and  virtue  to 
magistrates,  citizens,  and  men  not  only  in  the  present  age, 
but  in  future  generations,  as  long  as  our  history  shall  be 

read."t 

It  was  a  happy  hour  for  America  when,  by  the  divine 
ordering  of  human  affairs,  she  gave  birth  to  the  future 
"Father  of  his  Country."  He  was  born  on  the  22dJ 
day  of  February,  and  citizens  of  the  United  States  have 
good  reason  to  celebrate,  with  lively  enthusiasm,  every 
annual  recurrence  of  the  memorable  day. 

The  period  of  his  birth  and  boyhood  was  that  during 
which  occurred,  as  will  appear  in  the  sequel,  some  of  the 

*Lord  Brougham's  Sketch  of  Washington,  in  his  "Historical 
Sketches  of  Statesmen  who  flourished  in  the  Time  of  George  III." 
Second  Series,  Vol.  II,  last  sketch. 

t  John  Adams's  speech  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  April, 
1789,  and  his  "  Special  Message  to  the  Senate,  December  23,  I799-" 

t  The  day  was  the  eleventh  (Old  Style),  1732. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  3 

most  extraordinary  and  oppressive  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  British  ParHament,  in  relation  to  the  American  colo- 
nies. And  it  is  a  reflection  which  cannot  escape  the  notice 
of  inteUigent  students  of  history  that  often,  at  the  very 
time  when  oppression  has  been  pushing  its  exactions  to 
their  climax,  deliverance  and  a  deliverer  have  been 
revealed. 

In  November  of  the  very  year  (1732)  when  Washington 
was  born,  the  benevolent  and  brave  Oglethorpe,  with 
120  emigrants,  was  crossing  the  Atlantic  with  his  charter 
to  found  the  colony  of  Georgia,  the  future  thirteenth  State 
of  the  original  American  Confederacy,  destined,  when  the 
infant  energies  of  Washington  should  be  matured  for  the 
exploit,  to  take  part  in  achieving  our  national  independ- 
ence. 

It  was  when  he  was  a  child  (1733)  that  England  imposed 
a  tax  on  the  importation  of  sugar  into  North  America. 
Then  too,  in  the  full  exercise  of  the  exclusive  privilege* 
to  import  negro  slaves  from  Africa  into  the  Spanish  col- 
onies, in  America,  she  sent  her  Asiento  ships  to  these 
colonies,  until  her  abuse  of  her  privileges  led  eventually 
to  a  war  with  Spain.  And  it  was  during  this  war  (1739), 
the  first  war  waged  for  colonial  interests,  that  Porto  Bello, 
the  grand  mart  of  Peruvian  and  Chilian  commerce,  was 
captured  by  the  daring  Admiral  Vernon,  whose  name 
afterward  became  associated  with  the  rural  home  of  our 
great  champion  of  civil,  social,  and  religious  liberty. 

The  state  of  civil  affairs  in  England  at  this  period  was 
extraordinary. 

The  Prime  Minister,  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  produced  his 

*  The  treaty  for  the  exclusive  right  to  import  negroes,  "  El 
Asiento  de  los  Negros,"  was  made  by  England  with  Spain,  in 
1713,  and  was  to  continue  thirty  years. 


4  WASHINGTON. 

excise  scheme  (1733),  which  occasioned  an  intense  feeUng 
of  repugnance  throughout  the  realm.  Not  only  was  the 
offensive  measure  denounced  in  Parliament,  as  a  ''  plan 
of  arbitrary  power,"  but  the  people  at  large,  in  the  provin- 
cial towns,  as  well  as  in  the  metropoUs,  bent  on  protecting 
their  civil  rights  from  what  they  deemed  the  grasp  of 
tyranny,  indulged  in  loud  protestations  against  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  scheme,  burnt  the  minister  in  effigy,  wore 
cockades  with  the  motto,  "  Liberty,  Property,  and  no 
Excise,"  and,  by  the  power  of  the  popular  will,  drove 
Walpole  to  rehnquish  his  measure,  with  the  memorable 
declaration  that  "there  would  be  an  end  of  the  liberty 
of  England  if  suppHes  were  to  be  raised  by  the  sword." 

The  European  continent  also  was  at  this  time  greatly 
agitated  by  the  War  of  the  Polish  Succession,  in  which 
France,  Spain,  Sardinia,  and  a  majority  of  the  people  of 
Poland,  maintained  the  claims  of  Stanislaus,  Leczinski; 
and  the  Czarina  Anne,  of  Russia,  supported  by  Austria, 
occupied  Poland  with  foreign  troops,  placed  on  the  throne 
Frederick  Augustus,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  proclaimed 
will  of  the  nation,  and  reasserted  what  the  infant  Wash- 
ington was  destined,  in  less  than  fifty  years,  to  condemn 
with  greater  eloquence  than  that  of  words,  while  he  vindi- 
cated our  natural  and  inalienable  rights  in  opposition  to 
the  humiliating  dogma,  that  popular  privilege  must  yield 
to  royal  prerogative  and  the  voice  of  the  people  to  the 
will  of  kings. 

Stanislaus  II,  Poniatowski,  born  but  a  few  weeks  before 
Washington  (January  17,  1732),  was  the  last  King  of  Po- 
land. The  humiliating  measures  of  the  Czarina  Catha- 
rine II,  caused  the  kingdom  rapidly  to  degenerate,  until 
at  length,  during  the  Presidency  of  Washington,  Stanis- 
laus was  dethroned,  and  his  country  dismembered  and 
partitioned  by  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia.    This  bold 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  5 

illustration  of  monarchical  tyranny,  by  which  the  political 
existence  of  an  ancient  kingdom  was  annihilated,  was  ex- 
hibited in  the  sight  of  all  Europe,  while  princes  and  courts 
that  had  waged  protracted  wars  to  settle  punctilios  of 
state  etiquette  were  content  to  view  the  solemn  spectacle, 
without  indulging  one  generous  impulse  in  behalf  of  ill- 
fated  Poland. 

Not  many  days  after  Washington's  birth,  his  parents, 
devout  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  which  at  that 
time  was  almost  universal  in  Virginia,  dedicated  him  to 
God  in  baptism,  and  provided  for  him  two  godfathers  and 
a  godmother,  according  to  the  rubric  in  the  baptismal 
office.  The  family  Bible  contains  this  record :  "  George 
Washington,  Son  of  Augustine  and  Mary,  his  Wife,  was 
born  the  nth  day  of  February,  1731-2,  about  10  in  the 
morning;  and  was  baptized  the  5th  of  April  following: 
Mr.  Beverly  Whiting  and  Captain  Christopher  Brooks, 
Godfathers;  and  Mrs.  Mildred  Gregory,  Godmother." 

This  scrupulous  conformity  to  sponsoral  provisions  im- 
plies a  decent  regard  also  for  the  solemn  vow,  promise, 
and  profession  made  in  the  baptismal  sacrament.  And  it 
may  reasonably  be  inferred  that  the  nature  of  the  solemn 
service  was  in  due  time  explained  and  its  obligations  set 
forth  by  the  parents  and  sponsors  to  the  child  thus  dedi- 
cated unto  God. 

It  may  be  regarded  as  of  special  interest  that  Washing- 
ton was  a  son  of  Virginia,  the  "  Mother  of  Presidents."* 
The  county  of  Westmoreland,  his  birthplace,  in  the  east- 
ern part  of  the  State,  and  bordering  on  the  Potomac  and 
Rappahannock  rivers,  is  celebrated  as  the  birthplace  of 
many  other  distinguished  men.      President  Monroe  was 

♦Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Harrison,  and  Tyler,  Presidents 
of  the  United  States,  were  citizens  or  natives  of  Virginia. 


6  WASHINGTON. 

born  there,  and  also  Richard  Henry  Lee  and  Thomas 
Lightfoot  Lee,  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence; Thomas,  Francis,  and  Arthur  Lee,  brothers  of  Rich- 
ard Henry;  Gen.  Henry  Lee,  who  was  known  during  the 
Revolution  as  ''  Light  Horse  Harry,"  and  Judge  Bushrod 
Washington.  [The  son  of  Gen.  Henry  Lee  was  Robert  E. 
Lee  of  the  Civil  war.] 

The  house  in  which  Washington  was  born,  a  single- 
story,  low-pitched,  frame  building,  is  no  longer  standing. 
It  was  a  ruin  before  the  Revolutionary  War.  Its  site 
however,  half  a  mile  from  the  junction  of  Pope's  creek 
with  the  Potomac,  in  Washington  parish,  is  indicated  by 
a  few  remaining  fragments  and  by  a  clump  of  decayed 
fig  trees.  A  few  vines  and  shrubs  and  a  few  gentle  flowers 
also  seem  to  delight  in  decorating,  year  after  year,  the 
hallowed  spot  and  in  enlivening  its  desolation  with  pleas- 
ing and  suggestive  sentiments.  The  majestic  river  scen- 
ery of  the  Potomac  and  the  neighboring  lawns  with  their 
velvet  greensward,  associated  with  the  infancy  of  Wash- 
ington, contribute  their  charm  to  enliven  the  patriot  pil- 
grim, who  mingles  with  his  delight  in  these  beauties  of 
nature  a  predominant  feeling  by  which  that  majestic 
stream  is  converted  into  a  lively  expression  of  the  pre- 
vailing emotion  of  his  mind. 

The  site  of  the  house  which  was  built  by  Washington's 
great-grandfather  in  the  year  1657,  when  he  emigrated  to 
America,  was  for  many  years  marked  by  only  a  simple 
monumental  stone,*  bearing  the  inscription:  "Here,  the 
nth  of  February,  1732,  George  Washington  was  born." 
A  suitable  monument  was  erected  in  1895. 

Seven  years  after  his  birth  (1739),  the  family  removed 
from  Westmoreland  to  a  house  which  was  the  property 

*  It  is  a  slab  of  freestone,  lying  horizontally,  and  it  was  placed 
there  by  George  W.  P.  Custis,  Esq.,  in  June,  1815. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  7 

of  his  father,  on  the  Rappahannock  river,  nearly  opposite 
Fredericksburg,  in  Suffolk  county.  Of  this  too  nothing 
now  remains  except  a  few  scattered  pieces  of  brick,  wood, 
and  plaster.  But  the  visitor  to  the  spot  is  naturally 
prompted  to  fancy  many  interesting  pictures  of  youthful 
sports  in  and  around  the  homestead. 

A  tale  still  current  in  Washington's  old  home  neighbor- 
hood in  Virginia  recounts  how  once  as  a  stripling  he  sat 
reading  upder  the  shade  of  an  oak  tree  near  his  school. 
Some  of  his  friends  had  engaged  a  champion  wrestler  of 
the  county  to  test  their  strength  in  an  impromptu  ring. 
One  after  another  fell  a  victim  to  the  champion's  skill,  till, 
grown  bold  at  last,  he  strode  back  and  forth  like  one  of 
the  giants  of  old-time  romance,  daring  the  only  boy  who 
had  not  wrestled  with  him  either  to  put  his  book  down 
and  come  into  the  ring  or  own  himself  afraid. 

This  was  more  than  the  self-contained  Washington  could 
stand.  Quietly  closing  his  book,  he  accepted  the  chal- 
lenge. Long  after,  when  the  student  under  the  oak  tree 
had  become  the  conqueror  with  whose  honored  name  the 
whole  civilized  world  resounded,  the  ex-champion  told 
what  followed.  After  a  "  fierce,  short  struggle,"  he  said, 
"  I  felt  myself  grasped  and  hurled  upon  the  ground  with 
a  jar  that  shook  the  marrow  of  my  bones." 

It  does  not  concern  American  citizens,  as  it  does  the 
subjects  of  European  princes,  to  trace  a  line  of  descent 
from  ancestors  who  wore  crowns  or  coronets,  and  were 
adorned  with  garters,  stars,  and  other  such  badges  of 
honorable  eminence.  It  is  rather  a  subject  of  self-gratu- 
lation  on  our  part  that  a  remote  forefather  was  one  of  a 
band  of  untitled  voluntary  exiles,  who  fled  from  persecu- 
tion to  the  rock-bound  shore  of  a  new  country;  or,  one 
of  the  sturdy  adventurers  or  gallant  cavaliers  who  sought 
their  fortunes  among  the  early  colonists  of  our  southern 


8  WASHINGTON. 

country.  Yet  it  is,  in  all  cases,  a  legitimate  object  of 
inquiry  with  us  to  ascertain  the  national  origin  of  a 
family  and  the  time  and  circumstances  of  its  emigration. 

The  first  of  Washington's  paternal  ancestors  who  came 
to  America  was  his  great-grandfather,  John  Washington. 
He  and  his  brother  Lawrence  emigrated  from  England 
to  the  colony  of  Virginia  in  the  year  1657,  while  the  royal- 
ists, republicans,  and  fifth-monarchy  men  were  in  the 
melee  of  their  opposition  to  the  scheme  of  making  Crom- 
well king,  and  while  many  loyal  British  subjects,  eschew- 
ing the  assumptions  of  the  protectorate,  were  fleeing  for 
refuge  to  other  lands. 

The  brothers,  John  and  Lawrence,  both  purchased  es- 
tates in  Westmoreland  county.  John  married,  and  had 
several  children,  one  of  whom,  Lawrence,  was  the  grand- 
father of  our  W^ashington.  This  Lawrence  had  several 
children;  and  his  second  son,  Augustine,  was  our  Wash- 
ington's father,  who  married  twice.  His  first  wife,  Jane 
Butler,  was  the  mother  of  four  children,  two  of  whom 
were  Lawrence  and  Augustine ;  and  his  second  wife,  Mary 
Ball,  celebrated  for  her  beauty,  was  the  mother  of  six 
children,  of  whom  our  Washington  was  the  first-born.* 

The  two  brothers  who  emigrated  to  America,  John  and 
Lawrence,  could  trace  their  family,  through  several  gen- 
erations, to  William  de  Hertburn,  a  powerful  and  noble 
knight,  who  lived  a  century  after  the  time  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  and  who  purchased,  in  the  year  1183,  the 
manor  and  village  of  Wessyngton,  in  the  diocese  of  Dur- 
ham. From  that  period,  the  de  Hertburn  family  took,  as 
then  was  usual,  the  name  of  the  estate,  and  was  called 

*  There  were  three  other  sons,  Samuel,  John  Augustine,  and 
Charles;  and  there  were  two  daughters,  Mildred,  who  died  in  in- 
fancy, and  Betty,  who  married  Fielding  Lewis,  Esq.,  afterward  a 
devoted  patriot  of  the  Revolutionary  times.  [Betty  was  of  the 
same  grand  figure  and  countenance  as  her  brother  George.] 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  9 

de  Wessyngton.  The  orthography  of  the  name,  passing 
through  various  modifications,*  eventually  attained  its 
familiar  modern  form. 

So  little  interest  did  our  Washington  himself  evince 
in  relation  to  his  pedigree  that  he  never  gave  it  his  serious 
attention  until  he  received,  after  his  elevation  to  the  Presi- 
dency, a  letter  on  the  subject  from  Sir  Isaac  Heard,  then 
Garter  King  at  Arms  in  London,  who  was,  from  his  office, 
naturally  led  to  inquire  into  the  ancestry  of  the  illustrious 
American,  who  was  at  that  time  the  observed  of  all  ob- 
servers. Washington's  reply  to  Sir  Isaac's  letter  is  a 
characteristic  effusion. 

"  Philadelphia,  2  May,  1792. 

"  Sir. —  Your  letter  of  the  7th  of  December  was  put 
into  my  hands  by  Mr.  Thornton,  and  I  must  request  that 
you  will  accept  my  acknowledgments,  as  well  for  the  polite 
manner  in  which  you  express  your  wishes  for  my  happi- 
ness, as  for  the  trouble  you  have  taken  in  making  genea- 
logical collections  relative  to  the  family  of  Washington. 

"  This  is  a  subject  to  which,  I  confess,  I  have  paid  very 
little  attention.  My  time  has  been  so  much  occupied  in 
the  busy  and  active  scenes  of  life,  from  an  early  period  of 
it,  that  but  a  small  portion  could  have  been  devoted  to 
researches  of  this  nature,  even  if  my  inclination  or  par- 
ticular circumstances  should  have  prompted  to  the  inquiry. 
I  am  therefore  apprehensive,  that  it  will  not  be  in  my 
power,  circumstanced  as  I  am  at  present,  to  furnish  you 
with  materials  to  fill  up  the  sketch  which  you  have  sent 
me,  in  so  accurate  a  manner  as  you  could  wish.  We  have 
no  ofifice  of  record  in  this  country,  in  which  exact  genea- 
logical documents  are  preserved;  and  very  few  cases,  I 
believe,  occur,  where  a  recurrence  to  pedigree,  for  any 

♦Among  these  modifications  are  Wessington,  Wassington, 
Weschington,  and  Wasshington. 


10  WASHINGTON. 

considerable  distance  back,  has  been  found  necessary  to 
establish  such  points  as  may  frequently  arise  in  older 
countries. 

"  On  comparing  the  tables,  which  you  sent,  with  such 
documents  as  are  in  my  possession,  and  which  I  could 
readily  obtain  from  another  branch  of  the  family  with 
whom  I  am  in  the  habit  of  correspondence,  I  find  it  to  be 
just.  I  have  often  heard  others  of  the  family,  older  than 
myself,  say,  that  our  ancestor  who  first  settled  in  this 
country  came  from  some  one  of  the  northern  counties  of 
England ;  but  whether  from  Lancashire,  Yorkshire,  or  one 
still  more  northerly,  I  do  not  precisely  remember. 

"  The  arms  inclosed  in  your  letter,  are  the  same  that  are 
held  by  the  family  here ;  though  I  have  also  seen,  and  have 
used,  as  you  may  perceive  by  the  seal  to  this  packet,  a 
flying  griffin  for  the  crest.* 

*'  If  you  can  derive  any  information  from  the  inclosed 
lineage,  which  will  enable  you  to  complete  your  table,  I 
shall  be  well  pleased  in  having  been  the  means  of  assist- 
ing you  in  those  researches,  which  you  have  had  the 
politeness  to  undertake ;  and  shall  be  glad  to  be  informed 
of  the  result,  and  of  the  ancient  pedigree  of  the  family, 
some  of  whom  I  find  intermixed  with  that  of  Ferrers. 

"  Lawrence  Washington,  from  whose  will  you  inclosed 
an  abstract,  was  my  grandfather.  The  other  abstracts 
which  you  sent  do  not,  I  believe,  relate  to  the  family  of 
Washington  in  Virginia;  but,  of  this  I  cannot  speak 
positively. 

*  The  Washington  coat  of  arms,  in  the  families  of  Buckingham- 
shire, Kent,  Warwickshire,  and  Northamptonshire,  and  in  the  Vir- 
ginia families,  is  argent,  two  bars  gules  in  chief,  three  mullets  of 
the  second.  Crest,  a  raven  with  wings  indorsed  proper,  issuing 
out  of  a  ducal  coronet  or.  In  Edmondson's  Heraldry,  are  given 
other  arms  for  other  branches  of  the  family. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  11 

"  With  due  consideration,  I  am,  sir,  your  most  obe- 
dient servant, 

"  George  Washington." 

In  this  letter  were  inclosed  particulars  respecting  the 
family.  "  In  the  year  1657,  or  thereabouts,  and  during 
the  usurpation  of  Oliver  Cromwell,  John  and  Lawrence 
Washington,  brothers,  emigrated  from  the  north  of  Eng- 
land, and  settled  at  Bridge's  Creek,  on  the  Potomac  river, 
in  the  county  of  Westmoreland.  But  from  whom  they 
descended,  the  subscriber  is  possessed  of  no  document 
to  ascertain."  *  Then  follows  an  account  of  John,  who 
was  Washington's  great-grandfather,  and  of  his  descend- 
ants in  America. 

While  he  heeded  not  the  suggestions  by  which  pride 
and  ambition  allure  so  many  to  genealogical  records, 
Washington  did  however  obey  the  promptings  of  benevo- 
lence, when,  on  making  his  will,  he  desired  that  a  list 
should  be  furnished  of  his  blood-relations,  both  in  Europe 
and  America,  with  a  view  to  his  bestowing  upon  each 
one  of  them  a  gift  or  souvenir. 

To  such  inquirers  as  may  be  curious  on  the  subject  of 
the  remote  English  ancestors  of  our  Washington's  first 
American  progenitor,  John,  of  Virginia,  it  may  be  inter- 
esting to  know  that  he  descended  lineally  from  John,  of 
Whitfield,  in  the  county  of  Lancaster,  whose  son  John, 
also  of  Whitfield,  was  father  of  John,  of  Warton,  in  the 
same  county ;  and  the  eldest  son  of  this  John,  of  Warton, 
Lawrence,  was  mayor  of  Northampton,  and  had  a  grant 
of  the  manor  of  Sulgrave,  with  other  valuable  lands  there, 
after   Henry   VIIFs   dissolution    of  the    priories,  f      This 

*  It  has  been  recently  found  that  the  immediate  English  an- 
cestor, father  of  the  emigrants  to  America,  was  a  Rev.  Lawrence 
Washington,  of  Essex,  in  England. 

t  In  30  Henry  VIII,  1538-1539. 


12  WASHINGTON. 

Lawrence,  of  Northampton,  was  the  great-grandfather  of 
the  first  American  Washington;  his  son  Robert,  of  Sul- 
grave,  being  the  father  of  Lawrence,  of  Sulgrave,  of  whom 
John,  of  Virginia,  was  the  second  son.* 

Among  the  many  reflections  awakened  by  these  genea- 
logical memoranda,  one  of  the  most  interesting  is,  that 
they  are  a  key  to  what  is  far  more  worthy  of  attention 
than  the  mere  branches,  withered  or  budding,  of  a  family 
tree.  Among  the  Washingtons  are  found  many  persons 
of  note  in  the  learned  professions,  in  council,  and  in  the 
field  of  war;  men  who  won  the  fame  of  scholars,  the 
honors  of  knighthood,  the  rewards  of  skill  and  industry, 
and  the  praise  of  virtue,  valor,  and  high  resolve. 

Among  the  English  Washingtons  were  the  noble  knight 
William  de  Hertburn,  a  conspicuous  chevalier  in  the  train 
of  the  princely  Count  Palatinate,  the  Bishop  of  Durhsim; 
William  Weshington,  a  loyal  defender  of  Henry  III,  in 
the  wars  of  the  barons;  Sir  Stephen  de  Wessington,  one 
of  the  chevaliers  of  Edward  III ;  Sir  WilHam,  of  the  privy 
council  of  Durham;  John,  the  learnedf  and  energetic 
prior  of  the  Benedictines;  Lieutenant-Colonel  James 
Washington,  one  of  the  loyal  subjects  of  Charles  I,  in 
whose  cause  he  was  slain  at  the  siege  of  Pontefract ; 
Joseph,  an  eminent  lawyer,  who  translated  one  of  Milton's 
political  treatises ;]:  and  Sir  Henry,  famous  for  his  daring 

*  [The  error  of  this  account  has  been  recently  demonstrated, 
showing  that  the  Lawrence  of  Sulgrave  had  a  son,  Lawrence,  who 
was  the  father  of  the  John  and  Lawrence  who  came  to  America.] 
t  Author  of  "  De  Juribus  et  Possessionibus  Ecclesae  Dunelm." 
t  The  "  Defensio  pro  Populo  Anglicano."  He  wrote  also  a  trans- 
lation of  part  of  "  Lucian's  Dialogues,"  "  Observations  upon  the 
Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction  of  the  Kings  of  England,"  an  "  Abridge- 
ment of  the  Statutes  "  to  1687,  and  the  first  volume  of  "  Modem 
Reports." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  13 

achievement  at  the  storming  of  Bristol,  and  for  his  de- 
voted loyal  constancy  at  the  siege  of  Worcester.  Re- 
ferring to  Sir  Henry's  exploit  at  Bristol,  Lord  Clarendon 
says,  "  On  Prince  Rupert's  side,  it  was  assaulted  with 
equal  courage;  for,  though  that  division  led  on  by  the 
Lord  Grandison,  colonel-general  of  the  foot,  was  beaten 
off,  the  Lord  Grandison  himself  being  hurt,  and  the  other, 
led  by  Colonel  Bellasis,  likewise  had  no  better  fortune; 
yet  Colonel  Washington,  with  a  less  party  finding  a  place 
in  the  curtain  (between  the  places  assaulted  by  the  other 
two)  weaker  than  the  rest,  entered,  and  quickly  made 
room  for  the  horse  to  follow."* 

The  military  qualities  of  the  European  ancestors  were 
perpetuated  by  their  American  descendants,  from  the  very 
first  who  emigrated  to  this  country  —  John  Washington. 
Tradition  says  that  this  American  progenitor,  before  his 
migration  to  Virginia,  held  military  rank.  After  his  ar- 
rival in  Virginia  he  certainly  wore  the  name  and  performed 
the  duties  of  a  military  officer ;  his  will  is  indorsed  "  The 
will  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Washington,"  and  when  the 
shores  of  the  Potomac  were  threatened  with  an  incursion 
of  hostile  Indians  of  the  Seneca  tribe.  Col.  John  Wash- 
ington led  the  Virginia  forces  which  combined  with  those 
of  Maryland  in  repelling  the  savages.  He  was  also  a 
successful  and  wealthy  planter,  a  magistrate,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses;  and  the  parish 
in  which  he  resided  received,  in  honor  of  him,  and  still 
retains,  his  name. 

Col.  William  Augustine  Washington,  son  of  Baily,  of 
Stafford  county,  Virginia,  was  commander  of  a  celebrated 
regiment    of    cavalry    in    the    Revolutionary    War,    and 

*  Lord    Clarendon's    "  History   of    the     Rebellion,"    Book   VII, 
vol.  IV,  p.  134.     Oxf.  1839. 


14  WASHINGTON. 

achieved  such  remarkable  exploits  of  valor  that  Congress 
awarded  to  him,  after  the  battle  of  Cowpens,  a  silver 
medal ;  and  he  was  familiarly  known  as  "  The  modern 
Marcellus/'  and  "  The  Sword  of  his  Country." 

From  the  conquest  of  Britain  in  the  twelfth  century 
to  the  independence  of  its  American  colonies,  seven  cen- 
turies after  that  epoch,  a  martial  spirit,  associated  with 
energy,  endurance,  resolution,  constancy,  and  valor,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  prevailing  family  characteristic 
of  the  Washingtons, 


CHAPTER  II. 

EARLY  DAYS  OF  WASHINGTON. 

1739-1748. 

IT  was  while  Washington  was  a  boy  of  about  seven 
years  of  age  (1739),  that  his  father  removed  from 
the  old  homestead.  His  estate  which  he  now  occu- 
pied was  in  Stafford  county,  on  the  Rappahannock,  and 
in  a  region  remarkable  for  its  salubrity.  The  new  house 
was  very  pleasantly  situated,  and  it  commanded  an  ex- 
tensive land  and  water  prospect.  At  this  rural  home, 
several  years  of  young  Washington's  boyhood  were  spent 
in  study  and  in  sports,  from  his  seventh  to  his  eleventh 
year. 

As  an  infant  and  as  a  youth,  he  possessed  unusual  bod- 
ily health  and  vigor.  He  was  ever  active,  hardy,  and 
adventurous,  fond  of  open-air  employments  and  recrea- 
tions, of  athletic  exercises,  and  of  the  horse,  the  gun, 
and  the  chase. 

His  father,  who  was  a  good  man,  and  deeply  interested 
in  his  children's  moral  and  religious  education,  employed, 
among  other  means,  several  ingenious  methods  to  engage 
the  feelings  of  his  son  George,  so  as  to  kindle  in  his  mind 
generous  and  liberal  sentiments,  a  love  of  truth,  and  an 
habitual  and  influential  recognition  of  the  existence  and 
the  providence  of  God.* 

*  Anecdotes  illustrating  this  may  be  found  in  the  second  chapter 
of  the  Life  of  "Washington,  by  the  Rev.  M.  L.  Weems,  formerly 
rector  of  Mount  Vernon  parish. 

(15) 


16  WASHINGTON. 

When  George  would  commit  a  fault,  and,  being  de- 
tected, would  not  meanly  shrink  from  confessing  it,  but 
would  at  once  tell  the  honest  truth,  his  father  would 
warmly  and  affectionately  commend  him  for  his  magna- 
nimity and  integrity. 

He  would  point  out  to  him  the  riches  of  God's  bounty 
m  the  abundant  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  from  this  copious 
text  inculcate  precepts  of  ungrudging  liberality. 

On  a  certain  occasion  he  planted  seeds  in  one  of  his 
garden  beds,  so  disposed  as  to  exhibit,  when  they  sprung 
up,  the  words  George  Washington.  The  first  discovery 
of  a  spectacle  so  novel,  and  to  him  utterly  unaccountable 
and  marvelous,  naturally  awakened  in  George's  mind  pro- 
found astonishment.  He  repaired  to  his  father,  told  him 
of  the  strange  sight,  and  conducted  him  to  the  spot  where 
the  wonder  might  be  seen.  The  father  now  availed  him- 
self of  the  absorbing  incident  to  lead  his  little  son  to  trace 
the  phenomenon  to  an  intelligent  cause.  He  told  the 
secret  of  his  being  himself  the  agent  in  producing  it. 
And  he  then  explained,  in  a  striking  and  impressive  man- 
ner, the  pervading  indications  of  contrivance  and  design 
in  the  whole  visible  creation  and  the  wonderful  and  con- 
vincing proofs  of  an  intelligent  and  benevolent  Great  First 
Cause. 

This  paternal  care  and  discipline  was  destined  however 
to  be  of  short  continuance.  The  son,  when  about  eleven 
years  of  age,  was  on  a  visit  at  Chotanck,  where  he  was 
enjoying  the  Easter  holidays  with  Lawrence  and  Robert 
Washington,  whom  he  calls,  in  his  will,  "  the  acquaint- 
ances and  friends  of  my  juvenile  years,"  when  he  was 
hastily  summoned  from  the  happy  home  of  these  cousins 
to  change  the  joys  of  a  holiday  with  them  for  the  sorrows 
of  a  last  look  in  the  chamber  of  death,  where  lay  his  ex- 
piring father,  prostrated  by  a  sudden  and  fatal  attack  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  17 

gout  in  the  stomach.  It  was  also  his  lot  to  reach  home 
too  late  to  hear  him  utter  a  blessing  or  a  farewell,  or  to 
receive  any  expression  of  his  love,  except  what  affection 
could  fondly  associate  with  a  feeble  glance  of  recognition.* 

Augustine  Washington  was  a  Virginia  planter  of  the 
best  class.  He  brought  with  him  from  England  the  char- 
acteristic qualities  of  an  English  gentleman  and  an  intelli- 
gent and  devout  attachment  to  the  English  Church.  In 
person  he  was  remarkably  tall  and  manly.  He  was  also 
a  man  of  strong  mind,  with  great  energy  of  purpose ;  and 
his  thoughts  and  feelings  were  habitually  under  the  con- 
trol of  practical  religion.  In  common  with  the  Virginia 
planters  of  his  day,  he  delighted  in  field  sports.  His  long, 
heavy  gun,  still  preserved,  suggests  the  thought  of  a 
huntsman  of  extraordinary  size  of  body  and  power  of 
arm,  and  warrants  the  reports  which  tradition  has  handed 
down  to  us,  respecting  the  large  frame  and  great  muscu- 
lar strength  which  his  distinguished  son  inherited. 

One  who  knew  him  personally,  Mr.  Withers,  of  Staf- 
ford county,  has  described  him  as  a  man  of  uncommon 
height,  noble  appearance,  manly  proportions,  and  extraor- 
dinary muscular  power.  At  the  Principio  Iron  Works 
on  the  Rappahannock,  he  once  lifted  and  placed  in  a 
wagon,  "  a  mass  of  iron  which  two  ordinary  men  could 
barely  raise  from  the  ground."  Yet  this  gigantic  might 
of  muscle  never  tempted  him  to  take  any  part  in  the  fre- 
quent combats  which  occurred  in  Virginia  in  his  day, 
except  to  stay  savage  violence  by  separating  combatants. 
And  such  was  his  character  for  magnanimity,  justice,  and 

*  He  died  April  12,  1743,  at  the  age  of  forty-nine  years.  [At 
eleven  years  and  nearly  two  months  of  age,  his  oldest  son  had 
probably  had  fully  four  years  of  as  careful  and  thorough  educa- 
tion as  any  boy  in  any  age  could  have  had,  or  can  have  in  our 
own  time.] 

2 


18  WASHINGTON. 

moral  worth  that  he  commanded,  wherever  he  appeared 
and  in  whatever  he  engaged,  universal  and  unhesitating 
deference. 

His  disposition  was  mild,  his  manners  were  courteous, 
and  his  private  character  was  without  reproach.  And 
as  he  lav  on  his  deathbed,  he  uttered  a  declaration  that 
does  honor  to  his  memory.  "  I  thank  God,"  said  he, 
"  that  in  all  my  life  I  never  struck  a  man  in  anger ;  for 
if  I  had,  I  am  sure  that  from  my  remarkable  muscular 
powers  I  should  have  killed  my  antagonist,  and  then  his 
blood,  at  this  awful  moment,  would  have  lain  heavily  upon 
my  soul.     As  it  is,  I  die  at  peace  with  all  mankind."* 

The  success  with  which  he  accumulated  property  and 
added  field  to  field,  until  he  could  provide  plantations  for 
his  sons  and  an  independent  maintenance  for  his  surviving 
daughter,  illustrates  his  exemplary  diligence  and  industry, 
so  conspicuous  also  in  the  character  of  his  son  George. 

Upon  the  widowed  mother  now  devolved  the  care  of 
her  five  children.  The  eldest,  George,  was  eleven  years 
of  age ;  and  the  youngest,  Charles,  was  five.  But  she  was 
eminently  qualified,  by  nature  and  religion,  to  fulfil  all 
her  duties  to  her  family.  A  lady  "  of  the  old  school," 
possessed  of  a  strong  mind  and  sound  judgment,  she 
united  with  great  simpHcity  of  manners,  energy,  honesty, 
and  truthfulness.  Her  house,  the  home  of  hospitality, 
was  also  the  home  of  order,  neatness,  economy,  and  do- 
mestic industry.  She  was  a  strict  disciplinarian;  and,  by 
her  decision  and  consistency  of  character,  she  obtained 
over  her  children  and  dependents  an  uncompromising,  but 
benign,  control. 

*  Letter  from  George  W.  P.  Custis  to  Charles  Brown,  of  Boston, 
April  24,  1851,  reprinted  in  the  New  England  Historical  and  Genea- 
logical Register,  January,  i857- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  19 

Tradition  tells  that  she  was  deeply  interested  in  form- 
ing the  minds  and  hearts  of  her  children  according  to  the 
teachings  of  the  Gospel,  and  that  she  daily  read  to  them 
select  parts  of  Sir  Matthew  Hale's  Contemplations,*  a 
work  which  abounds  in  golden  maxims  of  sound  wisdom 
and  pure  piety.  The  very  volume  which  she  used,  and 
which  has  her  name  in  it,  ''  Mary  Washington,"  written 
by  herself,  is  still  preserved  among  the  family  relics.  And 
the  precepts  contained  in  those  portions  of  the  work 
which  appear  to  have  been  read  most  frequently,  were 
so  admirably,  as  well  as  faithfully,  exemplified  by  her  son 
George  throughout  his  life,  that  one  might  almost  think 
that  they  were  written  at  the  close  of  his  career,  and 
were  designed  as  a  delineation  of  his  character  and  a 
record  of  his  principles. 

Several  portions  of  the  work,  it  is  evident,  were  the 
familiar  lessons  of  the  family;  and  so  happily  do  these 
represent  Washington's  marked  moral  lineaments  that 
they  may  be  regarded  as  a  striking  portrait  of  him. 

In  the  portion  entitled  "  The  Great  Audit,"  the  good 
steward  is  represented  as  giving  his  account  to  God.  And 
he  says : 

"As  to  all  the  blessings  and  talents  wherewith  thou  hast 
intrusted  me,  I  have  looked  up  to  thee  with  a  thankful 
heart,  as  the  only  Author  and  Giver  of  them.  I  have 
looked  upon  myself  as  unworthy  of  them.  I  have  looked 
upon  them  as  committed  to  my  trust  and  stewardship, 
to  manage  them  for  the  ends  that  they  were  given,  the 
honor  of  my  Lord  and  Master.  I  have  therefore  been 
watchful  and  sober  in  the  use  and  exercise  of  them,  lest 
I  should  be  unfaithful  in  them.     If  I  have  at  any  time, 

*  "  Contemplations,  Moral  and  Divine,"  by  Sir  Matthew  Hale, 
Knight,  late  Chief  Justice  of  the  King's  Bench." 


20  WASHINGTON. 

through  weakness,  or  inadvertence,  or  temptation,  mis- 
employed any  of  them,  I  have  been  restless,  till  I  have 
in  some  measure  rectified  my  miscarriage,  by  repentance 
and  amendment. 

"As  touching  my  Conscience,  and  the  light  thou  hast 
given  me  in  it  —  it  has  been  my  care  to  improve  that 
natural  light  and  to  furnish,  it  with  the  best  principles  I 
could.  Before  I  had  the  knowledge  of  thy  Word,  I  got 
as  much  furniture  as  I  could  from  the  writings  of  the  best 
moralists  and  the  examples  of  the  best  men;  after  I  had 
the  Hght  of  thy  Word,  I  furnished  it  with  those  pure  and 
unerring  principles  that  I  found  in  it. 

"  I  have  been  very  jealous  either  of  wounding,  or  griev- 
ing, or  discouraging,  or  deadening  my  Conscience.  I 
have  therefore  chosen,  rather  to  forbear  that  which 
seemed  but  indiflferent,  lest  there  might  be  somewhat  in 
it  that  might  be  unlawful;  and  would  rather  gratify  my 
conscience  with  being  too  scrupulous,  than  displease,  dis- 
quiet, or  flat  it  by  being  too  venturous :  I  have  still  chosen 
rather  to  forbear  what  might  be  probably  lawful,  than 
to  do  that  which  might  be  possibly  unlawful;  because, 
could  I  not  err  in  the  former,  I  might  in  the  latter.  If 
things  were  disputable  whether  they  might  be  done,  I 
rather  chose  to  forbear,  because  the  lawfulness  of  my 
forbearance  was  unquestionable. 

"  Concerning  my  Speech,  I  have  always  been  careful 
that  I  ofifend  not  with  my  tongue;  my  words  have  been 
few,  unless  necessity  or  thine  honor  required  more  speech 
than  ordinary.  My  words  have  been  true,  representing 
things  as  they  were;  and  sincere,  bearing  conformity  to 
my  heart  and  mind.'' 

■^  "I  have  esteemed  it  the  most  natural  and  excellent 
use  of  my  tongue,  to  set  forth  thy  glory,  goodness,  power, 
wisdom,  and  truth;  to  instruct  others,  as  I  had  oppor- 


UFE  AND  TIMES.  21 

tunity,  in  the  knowledge  of  thee,  in  their  duty  to  thee,  to 
themselves,  and  others ;  to  reprove  vice  and  sin,  to  en- 
courage virtue  and  good  living ;  to  convince  of  errors ; 
to  maintain  the  truth;  to  call  upon  thy  name,  and,  by 
vocal  prayers,  to  sanctify  my  tongue,  and  to  fix  my 
thoughts  to  the  duty  about  which  I  was;  to  persuade  to 
peace  and  charity  and  good  works." 

"  Concerning  Human  Prudence,  and  understanding  in 
afifairs,  and  dexterity  in  the  managing  of  them, —  I  have 
been  always  careful  to  mingle  justice  and  honesty  with 
my  prudence ;  and  have  always  esteemed  Prudence,  actu- 
ated by  injustice  and  falsity,  the  arrantest  and  most  devil- 
ish practice  in  the  world;  because  it  prostitutes  thy  gift 
to  the  service  of  hell,  and  mingles  a  beam  of  thy  Divine 
Excellence  with  an  extract  of  the  devil's  furnishing,  mak- 
ing a  man  so  much  the  worse  by  how  much  he  is  wiser 
than  others. 

"  I  always  thought  that  wisdom  which,  in  a  tradesman 
and  in  a  politician,  was  mingled  with  deceit,  falsity,  and 
injustice,  and  deserved  the  same  name ;  only,  the  latter  is 
so  much  the  worse,  because  it  was  of  the  more  public  and 
general  concernment.  Yet,  because  I  have  often  observed 
great  employments,  especially  in  public  affairs,  are  some- 
times under  great  temptations  of  mingling  too  much  craft 
and  prudence,  and  then  miscall  it  Policy,  I  have,  as  much 
as  may  be,  avoided  such  temptations,  and  if  I  have  met 
with  them,  I  have  resolutely  rejected  them. 

"  I  have  always  observed,  that  Honesty  and  Plain-deal- 
ing in  transactions,  as  well  public  as  private,  is  the  best 
and  soundest  prudence  and  pohcy;  and  commonly,  at  the 
long  run,  overmatcheth  craft  and  subtlety.  Job  xii,  i6; 
for,  the  deceived  and  deceiver  are  thine,  and  thou  art 
privy  to  the  subtlety  of  the  one,  and  the  simplicity  of  the 
other;  and  thou,  as  the  great  Moderator  and  Observer 


23  WASHINGTON. 

of  men,  dost  dispense  success  and  disappointments 
accordingly. 

"As  Human  Prudence  is  abused,  if  mingled  with  falsity 
and  deceit,  though  the  end  be  ever  so  good,  so  it  is  much 
more  debased,  if  directed  to  a  bad  end;  to  the  dishonor 
of  thy  name,  the  oppression  of  thy  people,  the  corrupting 
of  thy  worship  or  truth,  or  to  execute  any  injustice  to- 
\vards  any  person. 

*'  It  hath  been  my  care,  as  not  to  err  in  the  manner,  so 
neither  in  the  end,  of  the  exercising  of  my  Prudence.  I 
have  ever  esteemed  my  prudence  then  best  employed, 
when  it  was  exercised  in  the  preservation  and  support  of 
thy  truth,  in  the  upholding  of  thy  faithful  ministers,  in 
countermining,  discovering,  and  disappointing  the  designs 
of  evil  and  treacherous  men,  in  delivering  the  oppressed, 
in  righting  the  injured,  in  preventing  of  wars  and  dis- 
cords, in  preserving  the  public  peace  and  tranquillity  of 
the  people  where  I  live,  in  faithful  advising  of  my  prince ; 
and  in  all  those  offices  incumbent  upon  me,  by  thy  Provi- 
dence, under  every  relation. 

"  When  my  End  was  most  unquestionably  good,  I  ever 
then  took  most  heed  that  the  Means  were  suitable  and 
justifiable,  i.  Because,  the  better  the  end  was,  the  more 
easily  are  we  cozened  into  the  use  of  ill  means  to  effect 
it.  We  are  too  apt  to  dispense  with  ourselves  in  the 
practice  of  what  is  amiss,  in  order  to  the  accomplishing 
of  an  end  that  is  good ;  we  are  apt,  while  with  great  in- 
tention of  mind  we  gaze  upon  the  end,  not  to  take  care 
what  course  we  take  so  we  attain  it ;  and  we  are  apt  to 
think  that  God  will  dispense  with,  or  at  least  overlook, 
the  miscarriages  in  our  attempts,  if  the  end  be  good. 

"  2.  Because  many  times,  if  not  most  times,  thy  name 
and  honor  do  more  sufifer  by  attempting  a  good  end  by 
bad  means,  than  by  attempting  both  a  bad  end  and  also 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  23 

by  bad  means;  for,  bad  ends  are  suitable  to  bad  means; 
they  are  alike ;  and  it  doth  not  immediately,  as  such, 
concern  thy  honor.  But  every  thing  that  is  good  hath 
somewhat  of  thee  in  it ;  thy  name  and  thy  nature  and  thy 
honor  is  written  upon  it;  and  the  blemish  that  is  cast 
upon  it  is,  in  some  measure,  cast  upon  thee;  and  the 
evil  and  scandal  and  infamy  and  ugliness  that  is  in  the 
means,  is  cast  upon  the  end,  and  doth  disparage  and 
blemish  it;  and  consequently  it  dishonors  thee.  To  rob 
for  burnt-offerings  and  to  lie  for  God,  is  a  greater  dis- 
service to  thy  majesty,  than  to  rob  for  rapine  or  to  lie 
for  advantage." 

"  Touching  my  eminence  of  Place  or  Power,  in  this 
world,  this  is  my  account.  I  never  sought  or  desired  it, 
and  that  for  these  reasons:  i.  Because  I  easily  saw,  that 
it  was  rather  a  burden  than  a  privilege.  It  made  my 
charge  and  my  accounts  the  greater,  my  contentment  and 
rest  the  less.  I  found  enough  in  it  to  make  me  decline 
it  in  respect  of  myself,  but  not  any  thing  that  could  invite 
me  to  seek  or  desire  it. 

"  2.  The  external  glory  and  splendor  also  that  attended 
it,  I  esteemed  as  vain  and  frivolous  in  itself,  a  bait  to 
allure  vain  and  inconsiderate  persons  to  affect  and  de- 
light, not  valuable  enough  to  invite  a  considerate  judg- 
ment to  desire  or  undertake  it.  I  esteemed  them  as  the 
gilt  that  covers  a  bitter  pill,  and  I  looked  through  this 
dress  and  outside,  and  easily  saw  that  it  covered  a  state 
obnoxious  to  danger,  solicitude,  care,  trouble,  envy,  dis- 
content, unquietness,  temptation,  and  vexation. 

"  I  esteemed  it  a  condition  which,  if  there  were  any 
distempers  abroad,  they  would  infallibly  be  hunting  and 
pushing  at  it,  and  if  it  found  any  corruptions  within,  either 
of  pride,  vain-glory,  insolence,  vindictiveness,  or  the  like, 
It  would  be  sure  to  draw  them  out  and  set  them  to  work." 


^4  WASHINGTON, 

*'And  if  they  prevailed,  it  made  my  power  and  greatness 
not  only  my  burden  but  my  sin;  if  they  prevailed  not, 
yet  it  required  a  most  watchful,  assiduous,  and  severely 
vigilant  labor  and  industry,  to  suppress  them. 

"  When  I  undertook  any  place  of  power  or  eminence  — 
First,  I  looked  to  my  call  thereunto  to  be  such  as  I  might 
discern  to  be  thy  call,  not  my  own  ambition.  Second, 
that  the  place  were  such  as  might  be  answered  by  suit- 
able abilities  in  some  measure  to  perform.  Third,  that 
my  end  in  it  might  not  be  the  satisfaction  of  any  pride, 
ambition,  or  vanity  in  myself,  but  to  serve  thy  Providence 
and  my  generation,  honestly  and  faithfully.  In  all  which, 
my  undertaking  was  not  an  act  of  my  choice,  but  of  my 
duty. 

"  3.  in  the  holding  or  exercising  of  these  places,  I 
kept  my  heart  humble;  I  valued  not  myself  one  rush  the 
more  for  it.  First,  because  I  easily  found  that  that  base 
affection  of  pride,  which  commonly  is  the  fly  that  haunts 
such  employments,  would  render  me  dishonorable  to  thy 
Majesty,  or  disserviceable  in  the  employment.  Second, 
because  I  easily  saw  great  places  were  slippery  places, 
the  mark  of  envy.  It  was,  therefore,  always  my  care  so 
to  behave  myself  in  them,  as  I  might  be  in  a  capacity  to 
leave  them,  and  so  to  leave  them,  that,  when  I  had  left 
them,  I  might  have  no  scars  and  blemishes  stick  upon 
me.  I  carried,  therefore,  the  same  evenness  of  temper 
in  holding  them,  as  might  become  me  if  I  were  without 
them.  Third,  I  found  enough,  in  great  employments,  to 
make  me  sensible  of  the  danger,  troubles,  and  cares  of  it; 
enough  to  make  me  humble,  but  not  enough  to  make  me 
proud  and  haughty. 

"  4.  I  never  made  use  of  my  power  or  greatness,  to 
serve  my  own  turns ;  either  to  heap  up  riches,  or  to  op- 
press my  neighbor,  or  to  revenge  injuries,  or  to  uphold 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  25 

or  bolster  out  injustice.  For,  though  others  thought  me 
great,  I  knew  myself  to  be  still  the  same ;  and  in  all  things, 
besides  the  due  execution  of  my  place,  my  deportment 
was  just  the  same  as  if  I  had  been  no  such  man ;  for,  first, 
I  knew  that  I  was  but  thy  steward  and  minister,  and 
placed  there  to  serve  thee  and  those  ends  which  thou 
proposedst  in  my  preferment,  and  not  to  serve  myself, 
much  less  my  passions  or  corruptions.  And,  further,  I 
very  well  and  practically  knew,  that  place  and  honor  and 
preferment  are  things  extrinsical,  and  have  no  ingredi- 
ence  into  the  man.  His  value  and  estimate,  before,  and 
under,  and  after  his  greatness,  is  still  the  same  in  itself; 
as  the  counter  that  now  stands  for  a  penny,  anon  for  six- 
pence, and  then  for  twelve-pence,  is  still  the  same  counter, 
though  its  place  and  extrinsical  denomination  be  changed. 

"  5.  I  improved  the  opportunity  of  my  place,  eminence, 
and  greatness,  to  serve  thee  and  my  country  in  it,  with 
all  vigilance,  diligence,  and  fidelity.  I  protected,  counte- 
nanced, and  encouraged  thy  worship,  name,  day,  and 
people.  I  did  faithfully  execute  justice,  according  to  that 
station  I  had.  I  rescued  the  oppressed  from  the  cruelty, 
malice,  and  insolence  of  their  oppressors.  I  cleared  the 
innocent  from  unjust  calumnies  and  reproaches.  I  was 
instrumental  to  place  those  in  offices,  places,  and  employ- 
ments of  trust  and  consequence,  that  were  honest  and 
faithful.  I  removed  those  that  were  dishonest,  irreligious, 
false,  or  unjust." 

"Touching  my  Reputation  and  Credit, —  i.  I  never  af- 
fected the  reputation  of  being  rich,  great,  crafty,  or  politic ; 
but  I  esteemed  much  a  deserved  reputation  of  justice, 
honesty,  integrity,  virtue,  and  piety. 

"  2.  I  never  thought  that  reputation  was  the  thing  pri- 
marily to  be  looked  after  in  the  exercise  of  virtue ;  for, 
that  were  to  affect    the  substance  for  the  sake   of    the 


26  WASHINGTON. 

shadow,  which  had  been  a  kind  of  levity  and  impotence 
of  mind;  but  I  looked  at  virtue,  and  the  worth  of  it,  as 
that  which  was  the  first  desirable,  and  reputation  as  a 
handsome  and  useful  accession  to  it. 

"  3.  The  reputation  of  justice  and  honesty  I  was  always 
careful  to  keep  untainted,  upon  these  grounds.  First, 
because  a  blemish  in  my  reputation  would  be  dishonor- 
able to  thee.  Second,  it  would  be  an  abuse  of  a  talent 
which  thou  hadst  committed  to  me.  Third,  it  would  be 
a  weakening  of  an  instrument  which  thou  hadst  put  into 
-my  hands,  upon  the  strength  whereof  much  good  might 
be  done  by  me. 

"  Though  I  have  loved  my  reputation,  and  have  been 
vigilant  not  to  lose  or  impair  it,  by  my  own  default  or 
neglect,  yet  I  have  looked  upon  it  as  a  brittle  thing, — 
a  thing  that  the  devil  aims  to  hit  in  a  special  manner, — 
a  thing  that  is  much  in  the  power  of  a  false  report,  a 
mistake,  a  misapprehension,  to  wound  and  hurt ;  and,  not- 
withstanding all  my  care,  I  am  at  the  mercy  of  others, 
without  God's  wonderful  overruling^  providence.  And  as 
my  reputation  is  the  esteem  that  others  have  of  me;  so, 
that  esteem  may  be  blemished  without  my  default.  I  have, 
therefore,  always  taken  this  care,  not  to  set  my  heart 
upon  my  reputation. 

"  I  will  use  all  fidelity  and  honesty,  and  take  care  it 
shall  not  be  lost  by  any  default  of  itiine ;  and  if,  notwith- 
standing all  this,  my  reputation  be  soiled,  by  evil  or  en- 
vious men  or  angels,  I  will  patiently  bear  it,  and  content 
myself  with  the  serenity  of  my  own  conscience.  Hie 
murus  aheneus  esto. 

""When  thy  honor  or  the  good  of  my  country  was 
concerned,  I  then  thought  it  was  a  seasonable  time  to 
lay  out  my  reputation  for  the  advantage  of  either;  and 
to  act,  it,  and  by  and  upon  it,  to  the  highest,  in  the  use 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  27 

of  all  lawful  means.  And  upon  such  an  occasion,  the 
counsel  of  Mordecai  to  Esther  was  my  encouragement, — 
Esther  iv,  14.  Who  knoweth  whether  God  hath  not  given 
thee  this  reputation  and  esteem  for  such  a  time  as  this  ?  " 

Would  American  mothers  more  generally  follow  the 
example  of  the  mother  of  Washington,  and,  instead  of 
gratifying  their  children's  morbid  appetite  for  popular 
light  literature,  cultivate  a  taste  for  the  teachings  of  such 
devout  philosophers  as  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  full  many  a 
youthful  mind,  now  sacrificed  to  sinful  folly,  might  be 
molded  to  virtue,  piety,  and  wisdom,  and  bless  our  coun- 
try and  mankind. 

[Sir  Matthew  Hale  was  from  1637  to  1676  one  of  the 
greatest  of  English  lawyers,  a  judge  in  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas  from  1653,  chief  baron  of  the  exchequer  (one 
of  the  chief  courts  of  the  realm),  1660-1671,  and  lord  chief 
justice  till  February,  1676.  He  began  to  study  for  the 
church,  with  strong  Puritanical  leanings,  but  broke  away 
from  severe  studies  to  pursue  a  life  of  pleasure,  and 
planned  to  go  as  a  soldier  on  the  Continent,  when  a  visit 
to  London  led  to  his  adoption  of  the  law,  in  which  his 
studies  were  exceptionally  thorough  and  his  attainments 
brilliant.  He  was,  moreover,  an  ardent  student  of  mathe- 
matics, physics,  and  chemistry,  and  even  anatomy  and 
architecture.  In  intellectual  distinction  he  was  at  the 
highest  level  of  English  culture  and  in  pure  and  noble 
character  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  English  genius 
for  the  conduct  of  life.  The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  says 
of  his  career : 

"  Hale  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1637,  and  almost  at  once 
found  himself  in  full  practice.  Though  neither  a  fluent 
speaker  nor  bold  pleader,  in  a  very  few  years  he  was  at  the 
head  of  his  profession.  He  entered  public  life  at  perhaps 
the  most  critical  period  of  English  history.     Two  parties 


28  WASHINGTON. 

were  contending  in  the  state,  and  their  obstinacy  could  not 
fail  to  produce  a  most  direful  collision.  But  amidst  the 
confusion  Hale  steered  a  middle  course,  rising  in  reputa- 
tion, and  an  object  of  solicitation  from  both  parties.  Tak- 
ing Pomponius  Atticus  as  his  political  model,  he  was  per- 
suaded that  a  man,  a  lawyer,  and  a  judge  could  best  serve 
his  country  and  benefit  his  countrymen  by  holding  aloof 
from  partisanship  and  its  violent  prejudices,  which  are  so 
apt  to  distort  and  confuse  the  judgment.  But  he  is  best 
vindicated  from  the  charges  of  selfishness  and  cowardice 
by  the  thoughts  and  meditations  contained  in  his  private 
diaries  and  papers,  where  the  purity  and  honor  of  his 
motives  are  clearly  seen.  Among  his  numerous  religious 
writings  the  "  Contemplations,  Moral  and  Divine,"  occupy 
the  first  place.  Others  are  "  The  Primitive  Origination 
of  Man,"  1677;  "Of  the  Nature  of  True  Religion,"  etc., 
1684;  *'A  Brief  Abstract  of  the  Christian  Religion,"  1688. 
One  of  his  most  popular  works  is  the  collection  of  "  Letters 
of  Advice  to  His  Children  and  Grandchildren." 

A  woman  disposed  to  read  his  "  Contemplations  "  must 
have  been  thoroughly  initiated  in  the  best  English  culture ; 
a  mother  who  thought  it  worth  while  to  read  Hale's  deeply 
thoughtful  pages  to  a  son  was  at  the  level  (for  our  time) 
of  John  Stuart  Mill  or  Matthew  Arnold.  Hale's  revolt 
from  his  study  at  Oxford  of  Aristotle  and  Calvin  left  him 
a  Humanist  on  a  broad  ethical  culture  platform,  but  with 
some  survival  of  Puritan  pietism  (enough,  unhappily,  to 
betray  him  into  securing  the  condemnation  and  execu- 
tion of  two  poor  women  tried  before  him  in  1664  upon 
the  charge  of  being  witches,  liable  under  Bible  law,  Exodus 
22 :  18,  "  Thou  shalt  not  suffer  a  witch  to  live.")  In  Wash- 
ington (as  very  clearly  in  his  brother  Lawrence),  the  finest 
humanism  was  without  taint  of  the  Puritan  pietism.] 

Another  interesting  volume  of  the  Washington  family 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  29 

library  is  still  preserved,*  and  may  have  exerted  a  whole- 
some influence  upon  the  mind  of  Washington  in  childhood. 
It  is  entitled  "  Short  Discourses  upon  the  Whole  Common 
Prayer;  abridged  to  inform  the  Judgment  and  excite  the 
Devotion  of  such  as  daily  use  the  same."  Its  title  page 
bears  the  autograph  of  Augustine  Washington ;  and  upon 
the  cover  leaves  of  the  volume  this  name  of  the  father  is 
written  again  and  again  by  his  son  George  in  the  bold  and 
marked  style  of  his  chirography. 

It  was  the  lot  of  Washington  to  receive  from  his  father, 
as  well  as  from  his  mother,  the  advantages  of  a  sound  re- 
ligious education ;  but,  in  common  with  many  worthies 
who  have  adorned  our  race,  he  points  the  world  to  the  chief 
earthly  source  of  his  successes, —  home  influence,  directed  by 
a  mother. 

It  was  a  precept  of  classical  mythology,  that  all  who  are 
earth-born  are  bound  to  make,  on  every  suitable  occasion, 
an  offering  to  Earth,  their  good  mother,  as  a  tribute  of 
gratitude  for  her  manifold  gifts.  Beautiful  exhibition  of 
filial  duty!  And  it  is  recorded  of  Washington  that  in  the 
spirit  of  this  precept,  and  actuated  by  a  sacred  domestic 
feeling  of  love  and  reverence,  he  ever  remembered  his 
obligations  to  his  ''  honored  "  mother,  as  he  habitually  en- 
titled her  in  his  letters  and  in  conversation,  and  that  he 
delighted  to  associate  his  regard  for  her  with  his  life's  most 
eventful  epochs,  and  with  its  chief  honors  and  successes  — 
with  the  wreath  upon  his  brow  and  the  flowers  strewed 
along  his  path.f 

On  returning  from  the  battle  of  the  Monongahela,  he 
addressed  an  affectionate  letter  to  her.     Before  receiving 

*  In  the  collection  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum. 
t  His  letters  to  Major-General  Knox,   February  20,   1784.   and 
June  17,  1788. 


30  WASHINGTON. 

his  commission  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  armies  of 
Virginia,  he  informed  her  by  letter  of  his  probable  eleva- 
tion to  that  rank.  And  just  before  his  departure  for  New 
York,  to  be  inaugurated  President  of  the  United  States, 
he  repaired  to  Fredericksburg  to  take  leave  of  his  "  aged 
mother."  It  was  their  last  interview.  She  died  a  few 
months  after.* 

[Of  John  Washington,  the  immediate  English  ancestor 
of  George  Washington,  who  came  out  of  England  when 
the  Puritan  Calvinist  rage  was  on,  in  Cromwell's  time. 
Lodge  says :  "  He  made  complaint  to  the  Maryland  au- 
thorities, soon  after  his  arrival,  against  Edward  Prescott, 
merchant,  and  captain  of  the  ship  in  which  he  had  come 
over,  for  hanging  a  woman  during  the  voyage  for  witch- 
craft. We  have  a  letter  of  his,  explaining  that  he  could 
not  appear  at  the  first  trial  because  he  was  about  to  bap- 
tize his  son,  and  had  bidden  the  neighbors  and  gossips  to 
the  feast.  A  little  incident  this,  dug  out  of  the  musty 
records,  but  it  shows  us  an  active,  generous  man,  intolerant 
of  oppression,  public-spirited  and  hospitable,  social,  and 
friendly  in  his  new  relations.  He  soon  after  was  called  to 
mourn  the  death  of  his  English  wife  and  of  two  children, 
but  he  speedily  consoled  himself  by  taking  a  second  wife, 
Anne  Pope,  by  whom  he  had  three  children,  Lawrence, 
John,  and  Anne.  According  to  the  Virginian  tradition, 
John  Washington  the  elder  was  a  surveyor,  and  made  a 
location  of  lands  which  was  set  aside  because  they  had 
been  assigned  to  the  Indians.  It  is  quite  apparent  that 
he  was  a  forehanded  person  who  acquired  property  and 
impressed  himself  upon  his  neighbors.  In  1667,  when  he 
had  been  but  ten  years  in  the  Colony,  he  was  chosen  to 
the  House  of  Burgesses;  and  eight  years  later  he  was 

*  August,  1789,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three  years. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  31 

made  a  colonel  and  sent  with  a  thousand  men  to  join  the 
Marylanders  in  destroying  the  '  Susquehannocks/  at  the 
'  Piscataway '  fort,  on  account  of  some  murdering  begun 
by  another  tribe.  As  a  feat  of  arms,  the  expedition  was 
not  a  very  brilliant  affair.  The  Virginians  and  Maryland- 
ers killed  half  a  dozen  Indian  chiefs  during  a  parley,  and 
then  invested  the  fort.  After  repulsing  several  sorties,  they 
stupidly  allowed  the  Indians  to  escape  in  the  ni^ht  and 
carry  murder  and  pillage  through  the  outlying  settle- 
ments, lighting  up  first  the  flames  of  savage  war  and  then 
the  fiercer  fire  of  domestic  insurrection." 

The  note  of  humanist  liberality  in  the  matter  of  the 
witch  is  an  important  indication  of  the  Washington  char- 
acter from  the  beginning. 

"  In  the  next  year,"  Lodge  continues,  ''  we  hear  again 
of  John  Washington  in  the  House  of  Burgesses,  when 
Sir  William  Berkeley  assailed  his  troops  for  the  murder 
of  the  Indians  killed  during  a  parley.  Popular  feeHng, 
however,  was  clearly  with  the  colonel,  for  nothing  was 
done,  and  the  matter  dropped.  At  that  point,  too,  in 
1676,  John  Washington  disappears  from  sight,  and  we 
know  only  that  as  his  will  was  proved  in  1677,  he  must 
have  died  soon  after  the  scene  with  Berkeley.  He  was 
buried  in  the  family  vault  at  Bridges  Creek,  and  left  a  good 
estate  to  be  divided  among  his  children.  The  colonel  was 
evidently  both  a  prudent  and  popular  man,  and  quite  dis- 
posed to  bustle  about  in  the  world  in  which  he  found 
himself.  He  acquired  lands,  came  to  the  front  at  once  as 
a  leader,  although  a  newcomer  in  the  country,  was  evidently 
a  fighting  man,  as  is  shown  by  his  selection  to  command 
the  Virginian  forces,  and  was  honored  by  his  neighbors, 
who  gave  his  name  to  the  parish  in  which  he  dwelt.  Then 
he  died  and  his  son  Lawrence  reigned  in  his  stead,  and 


32  WASHINGTON. 

became  by  his  wife,  Mildred  Warner,  the  father  of  John, 
Augustine,  and  Mildred  Washington. 

"  This  second  son,  Augustine,  farmer  and  planter  like  his 
forefathers,  married  first  Jane  Butler,  by  whom  he  had 
three  sons  and  a  daughter,  and  second,  Mary  Ball,  by 
whom  he  had  four  sons  and  two  daughters.  The  eldest 
child  of  these  second  nuptials  was  named  George,  and 
was  born  on  February  ii  (O.  S.),  1732,  at  Bridges  Creek. 
The  house  in  which  this  event  occurred  was  a  plain,  wooden 
farmhouse  of  the  primitive  Virginian  pattern,  with  four 
rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  an  attic  story  with  a  long, 
sloping  roof,  and  a  massive  brick  chimney.  Three  years 
after  George  Washington's  birth  it  was  burned,  and  the 
family  removed  to  another  estate  in  Stafford  county.  The 
second  house  was  hke  the  first,  and  stood  on  rising 
ground  looking  across  a  meadow  to  the  Rappahannock, 
and  beyond  the  river  to  the  village  of  Fredericksburg, 
which  was  nearly  opposite.  Here,  in  1743,  Augustine 
Washington  died  somewhat  suddenly,  at  the  age  of  forty- 
nine,  from  an  attack  of  gout  brought  on  by  exposure  in 
the  rain,  and  was  buried  with  his  fathers  in  the  old  vault 
at  Bridges  Creek.  Here,  too,  the  boyhood  of  Washing- 
ton was  passed,  and  therefore  it  becomes  necessary  to 
look  about  us  and  see  what  we  can  learn  of  this  important 
period  of  his  life. 

''  We  know  nothing  about  his  father,  except  that  he  was 
kindly  and  affectionate,  attached  to  his  wife  and  children, 
and  apparently  absorbed  in  the  care  of  his  estates.  On 
his  death  the  children  came  wholly  under  the  maternal 
influence  and  direction." 

The  sudden  fatal  illness  of  Augustine  Washington,  like 
that  of  his  illustrious  son,  from  exposure  to  chill,  shows 
physical  refinement  and  delicacy,  along  with  the  robust 
vigor  of  body  known  to  have  belonged  to  both. 


:6     ^ 

Co        § 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  33 

"  Much  has  been  written  about  the  *  mother  of  Wash- 
ington/ "  Lodge  goes  on  to  say,  ''  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  although  she  lived  to  an  advanced  age,  we 
know  scarcely  more  about  her  than  we  do  about  her 
husband.  She  was  of  gentle  birth,  and  possessed  a  vigor- 
ous character  and  a  good  deal  of  business  capacity.  The 
advantages  of  education  were  given  in  but  slight  measure 
to  the  Virginian  ladies  of  her  time,  and  Mrs.  Washington 
offered  no  exception  to  the  general  rule.  Her  reading 
was  confined  to  a  small  number  of  volumes,  chiefly  of  a 
devotional  character,  her  favorite  apparently  being  Hale's 
'  Moral  and  Divine  Contemplations.'  She  evidently  knew 
no  language  but  her  own,  and  her  spelling  was  extremely 
bad  even  in  that  age  of  uncertain  orthography.  Certain 
qualities,  however,  are  clear  to  us  even  now  through  all 
the  dimness.  We  can  see  that  Mary  Washington  was 
gifted  with  strong  sense  and  had  the  power  of  conducting 
business  matters  providently  and  exactly.  She  was  an 
imperious  woman,  of  strong  will,  ruling  her  kingdom 
alone.  Above  all  she  was  very  dignified,  very  silent,  and 
very  sober-minded.  That  she  was  affectionate  and  loving 
cannot  be  doubted,  for  she  retained  to  the  last  a  profound 
hold  upon  the  reverential  devotion  of  her  son,  and  yet  as 
he  rose  steadily  to  the  pinnacle  of  human  greatness,  she 
could  only  say  that  '  George  had  been  a  good  boy,  and  she 
was  sure  he  would  do  his  duty.'  Not  a  brilliant  woman, 
evidently,  not  one  suited  to  shine  in  courts,  conduct  in- 
trigues, or  adorn  literature,  yet  able  to  transmit  moral 
qualities  to  her  oldest  son,  which,  mingled  with  those  of 
the  Washingtons,  were  of  infinite  value  in  the  foundation 
of  a  great  Republic.  She  found  herself  a  widow  at  an 
early  age,  with  a  family  of  young  children  to  educate  and 
support.  Her  means  were  narrow,  for  although  Au- 
gustine Washington  was  able  to  leave  what  was  called  a 
3 


34  WASHINGTON. 

landed  estate  to  each  son,  it  was  little  more  than  idle  cap- 
ital, and  the  income  in  ready  money  was  by  no  means  so 
evident  as  the  acres." 

Lodge  errs  grievously  in  implying  that  we  know  very 
little  about  either  the  father  or  the  mother  of  George 
Washington.  For  the  purpose  of  the  latter's  biography 
we  know  the  most  essential  facts.  Not  that  they  can  be 
read  ofif-hand  by  the  uninstructed  student,  inexpert  in 
noting  the  significance  of  what  he  reads.  It  is  ignorance 
of  history,  in  examples  like  Lord  Bacon  and  William 
Shakespeare,  which  permits  making  anything  whatever  of 
the  bad  spelling  of  a  cultivated  lady  in  the  first  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Besides,  the  mistake  is  singularly 
unfortunate  of  saying  that  we  know  very  little,  while  yet 
telling  much  more  than  a  little  which  is  not  only  of  ex- 
treme interest  but  of  decisive  importance.  The  parentage 
of  George  Washington,  in  the  light  of  the  "good  few" 
facts  which  are  given,  can  be  read  to  no  small  extent 
through  carefully  instructed  study  of  the  character  of  the 
son ;  but  such  instruction  turns  on  knowledge  of  the  physio- 
logical and  psychical  complex  which  a  human  being  com- 
monly is.     Lodge  further  says: 

"  Many  are  the  myths,  and  deplorably  few  the  facts,  that 
have  come  down  to  us  in  regard  to  Washington's  boyhood. 
For  the  former  we  are  indebted  to  the  illustrious  Weems, 
and  to  that  personage  a  few  more  words  must  be  devoted. 
Weems  has  been  held  up  to  the  present  age  in  various 
ways,  usually,  it  must  be  confessed,  of  an  unflattering  na- 
ture, and  '  mendacious '  is  the  adjective  most  commonly 
applied  to  him.  There  has  been  in  reality  a  good  deal  of 
needless  confusion  about  Weems  and  his  book,  for  he  was 
not  a  complex  character,  and  neither  he  nor  His  writings 
are  difficult  to  value  or  understand.  By  profession  a 
clergyman  or  preacher,  by  nature  an  adventurer,  Weems 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  35 

loved  notoriety,  money,  and  a  wandering  life.  So  he 
wrote  books  which  he  correctly  believed  would  be  popular, 
and  sold  them  not  only  through  the  regular  channels,  but 
by  peddling  them  himself  as  he  traveled  through  the  coun- 
try. In  this  way  he  gratified  all  his  propensities,  and  no 
doubt  derived  from  life  a  good  deal  of  simple  pleasure. 
Chance  brought  him  near  Washington  in  the  closing  days, 
and  his  commercial  instinct  told  him  that  here  was  the  sub- 
ject of  all  others  for  his  pen  and  his  market.  He  accord- 
ingly produced  the  biography  which  had  so  much  success. 
Judged  solely  as  literature,  the  book  is  beneath  contempt. 
The  style  is  turgid,  overloaded,  and  at  times  silly.  The 
statements  are  loose,  the  mode  of  narration  confused  and 
incoherent,  and  the  moralizing  is  flat  and  commonplace  to 
the  last  degree.  Yet  there  was  a  certain  sincerity  of  feel- 
ing underneath  all  the  bombast  and  platitudes,  and  this 
saved  the  book.  The  biography  did  not  go,  and  was  not 
intended  to  go,  into  the  hands  of  the  polite  society  of  the 
great  eastern  towns.  It  was  meant  for  the  farmers,  the 
pioneers,  and  the  backwoodsmen  of  the  country.  It  went 
into  their  homes,  and  passed  with  them  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies  and  out  to  the  plains  and  valleys  of  the  great 
West.  The  very  defects  of  the  book  helped  it  to  success 
among  the  simple,  hard-working,  hard-fighting  race  en- 
gaged in  the  conquest  of  the  American  continent.  To 
them  its  heavy  and  tawdry  style,  its  staring  morals,  and  its 
real  patriotism  all  seemed  eminently  befitting  the  national 
hero,  and  thus  Weems  created  the  Washington  of  the 
popular  fancy.  The  idea  grew  up  with  the  country,  and 
became  so  ingrained  in  the  popular  thought  that  finally 
everybody  was  affected  by  it,  and  even  the  most  stately 
and  solemn  of  the  Washington  biographers  adopted  the 
unsupported  tales  of  the  itinerant  parson  and  book-peddler. 


36  WASHINGTON. 

"  In  regard  to  the  public  life  of  Washington,  Weems 
took  the  facts  known  to  every  one,  and  drawn  for  the  most 
part  from  the  gazettes.  He  then  dressed  them  up  in  his 
own  peculiar  fashion  and  gave  them  to  the  world.  All 
this,  forming  of  course  nine-tenths  of  his  book,  has  passed, 
despite  its  success,  into  oblivion.  The  remaining  tenth 
described  Washington's  boyhood  until  his  fourteenth  or 
fifteenth  year,  and  this,  which  is  the  work  of  the  author's 
imagination,  has  lived.  Weems,  having  set  himself  up  as 
absolutely  the  only  authority  as  to  this  period,  has  been 
implicitly  followed,  and  has  thus  come  to  demand  serious 
consideration.  Until  Weems  is  weighed  and  disposed  of, 
we  cannot  even  begin  an  attempt  to  get  at  the  real  Wash- 
ington." 

Mr.  Lodge  could  hardly  have  done  worse  than  in  this  , 
setting  up  that  we  know  very  little  of  the  facts  of  Wash- 
ington's boyhood,  when  in  fact  we  could  not  well  know 
more ;  that  the  ''  Life "  by  Weems  created  the  popular 
Washington,  when  in  fact  Washington  with  Weems  was 
known  as  no  other  man  in  history  has  ever  been  known  dur- 
ing his  own  time ;  and  that  we  cannot  even  begin  to  get  at 
the  real  Washington  until  we  have  critically  disposed  of  the 
myths  of  Weems,  when  in  fact,  Weems  or  no  Weems,  the 
large  and  exact  knowledge  of  the  real  Washington  possible 
to  study  without  taking  account  of  Weems  at  all,  and  of 
Washington  in  youth  as  well  as  maturity,  leaves  nothing 
to  be  desired,  except  a  general  casting  upon  a  rubbish 
heap  of  the  numerous  attempts  to  tell  the  story  of  Wash- 
ington without  anything  like  real  study.] 

The  planters  of  Virginia  being  at  that  period  without 
colleges  and  academies  were  compelled  to  employ  private 
tutors  for  their  children  or  to  content  themselves  with  the 
very    meager    instructions    to    be    obtained    at    common 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  37 

country  schools.*     The  masters  of  these  schools  moreover 
possessing,  not  unfrequently,  the  smallest  supposable  modi- 

*[The  famous  declaration  of  Sir  William  Berkeley,  "  I  thank  God 
that  there  are  no  free  schools,"  has  been  misunderstood.  It  was 
said  partly  in  view  of  the  system  of  home  teaching  by  private  tutors, 
which  was  maintained,  for  lack  of  tutors,  on  the  plan  referred  to 
by  Berkeley  in  saying:  "Every  man  teaches  his  own  children."  By 
"  free  schools "  Berkeley  meant  what  we  should  call  "  ragged 
schools,"  or  "  mission  schools,"  and  his  idea  was  that  no  respectable 
man  wanted  such  for  his  own  children  instead  of  home  teaching  by 
private  tutors  or  by  the  parent  himself.  In  fact  he  assumed  that  no 
respectable  father  would  so  much  as  think  of  schooling  by  the  side 
of  the  young  of  the  neglected  class  for  his  own  sons,  and  the  point 
of  his  reason  for  not  wanting  "  free  schools  "  at  all  was  his  convic- 
tion that  "learning"  given  to  the  lower  class  chiefly  resulted  in 
making  them  smarter  for  evil  —  less  submissive  to  order.  The 
Sunday  schools  started  by  Robert  Raikes  at  Gloucester  in  England 
towards  the  close  of  the  i8th  century  had  for  their  sole  object 
schooling  for  the  lowest  class  who  could  get  none  on  week  days,  and 
a  hundred  years  later  a  Sunday  school,  even  if  carried  on  in  con- 
nection with  the  service  of  worship,  and  not  as  a  mission  apart, 
was  frequently  not  used  for  children  of  good  families,  who  could 
have  instruction  at  home,  but  only  for  the  poor;  and  as  under  the 
system  as  originated  teachers  were  hired  on  very  low  pay,  and  were 
very  inferior  in  qualifications,  young  ladies  of  any  social  position 
commonly  thought  the  service  beneath  them.  American  adoption  of 
Sunday  schools  was  on  very  different  lines  from  the  first,  because 
of  the  extent  to  which  children  generally  could  enjoy  common 
schooling  during  the  week,  and  only  needed  for  Sunday  some  va- 
riety of  religious  instruction.  In  George  Washington's  youth  in- 
struction by  his  father  while  he  lived  was  undoubtedly  better  a  great 
deal  than  the  pretentious,  and  largely  preposterous  schooling  of 
which  children  are  the  victims  at  the  capital  of  the  state  of  New 
York  in  the  first  years  of  the  20th  century.  And  after  his  father's 
death  the  Academy  schooling  which  George  Washington  had  was 
supplemented  by  tutoring  given  him  by  three  or  four  persons  hardly 
less  interested  than  his  father  to  see  him  well  fitted  for  the  position 
which  he  would  have  in  his  Virginia  life.] 


38  WASHINGTON. 

cum  of  qualifications,  had  little  more  capital  than  self- 
assurance,  a  rod  and  a  ferule.  And  unable  to  subsist  upon 
the  pittance  afforded  by  their  school  duties,  they  would 
add  to  their  literary  offices  others  which  sometimes  were 
singularly  incongruous. 

A  rural  pedagogue  of  this  motley  class,  Washington's 
first  preceptor,  a  tenant  of  his  father's  when  the  family  was 
residing  in  Westmoreland,  was  Mr.  Hobby,  a  pretentious, 
jovial  wight,  who  kept  what  was  called  "  the  old  field 
school ; "  and  who  in  the  comprehensive  range  of  his  em- 
ployments was  busied  both  with  the  minds  and  the  bodies 
of  his  neighbors,  combining  the  functions  of  schoolmaster, 
parish  sexton,  and  undertaker.  It  was  his  joy  to  see  his 
most  honored  pupil  rise  to  the  greatest  height  of  his  renown ; 
and  he  would  often  boast  as  he  recounted  anecdotes  of  the 
old  field  school  —  "  It  was  I  who  laid  the  foundation  of  his 
greatness ! " 

Soon  after  his  father's  death,  Washington  was  sent  from 
the  family  residence  in  Suffolk  to  the  old  homestead  in 
Westmoreland  county,  the  house  in  which  he  was  born, 
and  which  was  then  occupied  by  his  half-brother  Augus- 
tine. The  object  had  in  view  was  to  provide  for  him  a 
schoolmaster  of  a  higher  grade  than  he  who  "  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  greatness."  He  was  accordingly  placed 
under  the  care  of  Mr.  Williams,  an  excellent  teacher  of  the 
usual  branches  of  an  English  education,  and,  in  particular, 
of  geography,  bookkeeping,  and  surveying. 

Under  the  guidance  of  this  competent  master  and  worthy 
man  our  young  pupil  vigorously  pursued  his  studies  until 
his  fourteenth  year  (1746),  when  an  incident  occurred  worthy 
of  especial  notice  from  its  important  bearing  on  the  future 
of  his  history. 

This  was,  his  purpose  to  obtain  a  midshipman's  warrant 
in  the  British  navy.     His  half-brother  Lawrence  who  was 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  39 

at  that  time  a  man  of  consideration  in  Virginia,  being  a 
member  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  and  adjutant-general 
of  his  district,  had  served  under  Admiral  Vernon  and  Gen- 
eral Wentworth  in  the  West  Indies.  As  captain  in  the 
American  regiment  under  command  of  Col.  Alexander 
Spotswood,  raised  expressly  for  the  West  India  service, 
and  for  co-operating  with  the  British  troops  in  Vernon's 
expedition,  he  was  with  Wentworth  when  he  undertook 
in  the  year  1741  the  disastrous  siege  of  Carthagena.* 

A  midshipman's  warrant,  obtained  through  the  influence 
of  this  half-brother,  was  put  into  the  hands  of  our  young 
naval  aspirant,  greatly  to  his  delight.  He  made  immediate 
arrangements  to  embark  on  board  a  man-of-war  then  rid- 
ing in  the  Potomac.  His  baggage  was  on  the  ship.  All 
that  remained  to  be  done  before  his  departure  was  to  re- 
ceive his  mother's  approbation  and  her  blessing.  But  she 
had  doubts  of  the  advantage  of  the  project.  She  looked 
at  the  many  evils  associated  with  scenes  of  naval  service ; 
and  she  dwelt  upon  the  thought  of  a  separation  by  which 
her  son,  so  young  in  years  and  in  experience,  would 
be  taken  away  forever  from  the  family  manse,  and  from 
the  shrine  of  its  sacred  home  influences.  She  refused  her 
consent  to  his  separation  from  her.  And  maternal  solici- 
tude and  filial  affection  soon  blended  in  deciding  that  the 
proposed  measure  should  be  relinquished. 

[The  matter  was  not  decided  by  the  mother  upon  her 
own  feeling  alone.  She  consulted  her  brother  Joseph  in 
London,  who  very  urgently  advised  her  against  the  navy 
as  a  place  for  her  son,  and  against  sacrificing  the  promise 
of  his  inherited  position  as  a  future  man  of  estate  in  Vir- 
ginia.] 

*  Smollett's  "  History  of  England,"  chap.  IV,  at  the  beginning; 
and  his  "  Roderick  Random." 


40  WASHINGTON. 

The  dutiful  son's  unmurmuring  acquiescence,  and  his 
surrender  in  such  circumstances  of  his  heart's  joy,  are  a 
beautiful  comment  on  his  mental  and  moral  discipline. 
And  his  filial  obedience  was  in  harmony  with  a  divine  in- 
tention. The  Unseen  was  present  in  the  sympathies  of 
that  domestic  incident.  He  who  controls  the  fates  of  men 
and  nations  had  a  higher  service  than  that  of  a  midship- 
man in  reserve  for  this  noble  boy. 

[The  chief  agent  in  getting  young  Washington  a  chance 
to  go  to  sea  was  a  notable  neighbor  of  Lawrence  Wash- 
ington, whose  estate  of  Belvoir  was  on  the  Potomac  five 
miles  below  Mt.  Vernon.  This  neighbor  of  Lawrence 
was  Hon,  William  Fairfax,  cousin  to  the  sixth  Lord 
Fairfax,  whose  inheritance  from  his  mother  embraced 
about  a  fourth  part  of  the  whole  of  Virginia.  He  was  the 
son  of  Henry  Fairfax,  whose  wife,  Anna  Harrison,  was 
sister  to  the  wife  of  Henry  Washington,  one  of  the  Eng- 
lish Washingtons.  Henry  Fairfax  was  the  second  son 
of  the  fourth  Lord  Fairfax,  and  in  1691,  the  year  of  his 
son  William's  birth,  he  became  high  sheriff  of  Yorkshire. 
The  son  William  was  educated  at  a  collegiate  school,  and 
went  to  sea  when  very  young;  then  served  in  the  British 
army  in  Spain;  was  stationed  at  St.  Helena  for  a  time; 
and  subsequently  at  the  Bahamas,  where  he  married,  in 
1723,  Sarah  Walker,  a  daughter  of  Major  Walker,  and 
was  appointed  chief  justice  of  the  island.  About  the 
year  1725,  on  account  of  the  unhealthiness  of  the  climate, 
he  removed  to  New  England,  having  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  collector  of  the  customs  at  Salem  and 
Marblehead.  Here  the  death  of  his  wife  in  1731  left  him 
with  four  children,  George  William,  born  at  the  Baha- 
mas ;  Thomas,  Anne,  and  Sarah,  born  in  Salem.  He  sub- 
sequently married  Deborah  Clarke  of  Salem,  an  intimate 
friend  of  his  first  wife,  who  had  expressed,  on  her  death- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  41 

bed,  the  wish  that  this  might  take  place  for  the  sake  of 
her  children.  Thomas,  the  sixth  Lord  Fairfax,  hearing 
that  the  agent  in  charge  of  his  American  estates  was  not 
faithful  to  his  interests,  invited  his  cousin  William  to  leave 
New  England  and  become  the  superintendent  of  his  es- 
tates. The  offer  was  accepted  in  1734,  and  he  at  first  took 
up  his  residence  in  Westmoreland  county,  but  subsequently 
removed  to  Belvoir,  a  plantation  fourteen  miles  below 
Alexandria.  His  daughter  Anne,  born  in  Salem,  Mass., 
about  1726  or  1727,  became  the  wife  of  Lawrence  Wash- 
ington, whose  brother  George,  fourteen  years  younger, 
thus  came  under  the  direct  influence  of  William  Fairfax, 
then  about  fifty-two  years  of  age.  A  letter  of  William 
Fairfax  to  Lawrence  Washington,  dated  September  10, 
1746,  when  George  was  fourteen  years  and  six  months  of 
age,  says :  "  George  has  been  with  us,  and  says  he  will 
be  steady,  and  thankfully  follow  your  advice  as  his  best 
friend." 

It  was  William  Fairfax  who  "  had  used  his  influence  to 
obtain  a  position  for  George  in  the  navy,  but  the  mother 
would  not  consent  to  his  going  to  sea,  for  '  several  persons 
told  her  it  was  a  bad  scheme.'  "  Mrs.  Washington's  chief 
adviser  in  the  matter  was  her  brother,  Joseph  Ball,  resid- 
ing in  London,  who  wrote  as  follows : 

"  I  understand  you  are  advised,  and  have  some  thoughts 
of  putting  your  son  to  sea.  I  think  he  had  better  be  put 
apprentice  to  a  trade,  for  a  common  sailor  before  the  mast 
has  by  no  m-eans  the  common  liberty  of  the  subject;  for 
they  will  press  him  from  a  ship  where  he  has  fifty  shillings 
a  month,  and  make  him  take  twenty-three,  and  cut  and 
beat  him  like  a  negro,  or  rather  like  a  dog.  And  as  to 
any  considerable  promotion  in  the  navy  it  is  not  to  be  ex- 
pected, as  there  are  always  so  many  gaping  for  it  here  who 
have  influence,  and  he  has  none  "  (in  Meade),  p.  50.] 


42  WASHINGTON. 

He  resumed  his  studies  at  the  school  of  Mr.  WilHams. 
And  he  continued  to  pursue  them  two  years  longer  until 
he  had  almost  attained  to  his  sixteenth  year.  This  was  an 
early  season  for  his  leaving  school,  but  it  was  the  limit  of 
his  opportunities.  The  schoolboy  and  the  college-student 
of  our  day,  who  bask  in  the  broad  light  afforded  by 
thoroughly  furnished  educators  and  the  latest  and  most  im- 
proved text-books,  too  seldom  think  how  few  and  fitful 
were  the  rays  which  glimmered  on  the  path  of  our  youthful 
countrymen  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  Yet  a  com- 
pensation for  the  want  of  modern  artificial  helps  to  learn- 
ing was  afforded  by  a  prevailing  stalwart  vigor  and  power- 
ful grasp  of  thought.  And  there  was  then  a  freedom  from 
the  influence  of  our  literary  luxuries,  which  are  so  tempt- 
ing to  a  relaxation  of  industry  in  the  pursuit  of  truth. 

[It  is  upon  less  than  adequate  discrimination  that  the 
view  is  entertained  of  a  short  and  meagre  schooling  of 
young  Washington.  For  what  his  natural  powers  and 
impulses  were,  and  what  his  father,  mother,  brother  Law- 
rence, Mr.  William  Fairfax,  Lord  Fairfax,  and  the  school 
he  attended  were,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  one  in  twenty 
of  the  university  graduates  of  the  present  time,  in  either 
England  or  America,  stand  upon  the  threshold  of  active 
life  as  well  disciplined  for  it  as  George  Washington  was, 
if  not  at  sixteen,  at  least  at  his  first  encounter  with  the 
demands  aiid  responsibilities  of  a  career.  Even  if  four- 
fifths  of  what  the  student  in  school  and  college  to-day 
spends  much  time  but  scant  attention  upon  were  not  of 
absolutely  no  educational  account,  yet  the  instances  are 
exceptional  in  which  a  boy  of  rare  character  and  fine  mind 
gets  as  good  personal  training  during  eight  years  as 
George  Washington  got  before  he  entered  upon  active 
life.     In  proportion  as  we  understand  what  real  educa- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  43 

tion  is,  and  how  much  self-education  counts,  we  can  see 
that  Washington's  actual  advantages,  with  his  use  of  them, 
brought  him  out  upon  the  stage  of  his  time  remarkably 
well  educated  and  very  exceptionally  disciplined.] 

At  the  early  period  of  his  schooldays  Washington  af- 
forded one  of  the  numerous  illustrations  of  a  fact  which 
gives  such  interest  to  the  history  of  the  childhood  of  great 
men.  With  all  due  allowance  for  the  propensity  of  imagi- 
nation to  color  with  bright  tints  its  pictures  of  early  genius 
it  must  be  admitted  that  in  many  cases  the  mind  does,  in 
its  first  developments,  disclose  the  secret  of  its  leading 
bent.  At  the  beginning  of  life's  spring,  incipient  tendrils 
indicate  the  nature  of  a  plant  formed  to  climb. 

Among  his  playmates  our  schoolboy  was  their  umpire 
and  their  leader.  He  won  their  confidence  by  his  native 
ingenuousness  and  his  strict  regard  for  truth.  He  was 
generous  and  just,  he  was  proverbially  a  peacemaker,  and 
his  word  of  honor  was  a  bond.  His  military  predilections 
also  now  appeared,  not  only  in  his  delighting  when  eleven 
years  of  age,  as  boys  so  generally  do,  to  play  ''  soldiers," 
but  in  his  being  the  master-spirit  in  many  a  mimic  battle 
between  ''  the  English  "  and  "  the  French." 

He  was  conspicuous  moreover  in  their  sports  on  account 
of  his  feats  of  strength  and  agility.  Among  his  favorite 
recreations,  in  which  he  was  almost  without  a  rival,  were 
lifting  and  throwing  heavy  weights,  jumping  with  a  pole, 
and  wrestling.  He  was  celebrated  too  for  fleetness  like 
the  swift-footed  hero  of  the  Iliad;  and  in  racing  with  his 
schoolfellows  he  surpassed  them  all.  And  so  great  was 
the  power  of  his  arm  in  youth  that  he  would  often  throw 
a  stone  across  the  Rappahannock  at  the  lower  ferry  of 
Fredericksburg  —  a  feat  which  few  men  were  able  to  per- 
form. 


44  WASHINGTON. 

"  More  than  fifty  years  ago,"  says  Mr.  Custis,*  "  I  be- 
came acquainted  with  two  aged  and  highly  estimable  gen- 
tlemen, Lawrence  and  Robin  Washington  who  were  dis- 
tantly related  to  and  had  been  companions  of  the  Chief 
in  his  juvenile  days.  They  spoke  of  the  fine,  manly  youth ; 
and  of  his  gallant  demeanor  and  daring  exploits  in  horse- 
manship, and  the  athletic  exercises  of  that  remote  period." 
But  the  manly  exercise  in  which  he  most  excelled  was 
horsemanship.  When  a  boy  of  but  twelve  years  of  age  he 
resolved  to  ride  a  spirited,  unbroken  colt  of  his  mother's  — 
her  favorite  sorrel  —  which  had  hitherto  successfully  re- 
sisted all  attempts  of  "  horse-tamers."  He  informed  his 
playmates  of  his  purpose,  and  accordingly  a  party  of  them 
assembled  soon  after  sunrise  on  the  appointed  day  to  se€ 
the  sport.  With  great  difficulty  they  penned  the  mettle- 
some and  fiery  animal  and  after  many  unsuccessful  efforts 
at  length  bridled  him.  The  youthful  horseman  then  seized 
the  reins  and  with  a  single  effort  vaulted  on  the  colt's  back. 
Then  followed  a  desperate  struggle  between  horse  and 
rider.  The  colt  could  not  and  would  not  brook  restraint. 
He  had  prevailed  hitherto  and  he  would  prevail  again.  In 
all  the  freedom  of  his  noble  nature  he  had  at  pleasure 
ranged  the  field,  snuffed  the  wind,  and  thrown  off  by  a 
bound  or  leap  his  waste  exuberance.  He  now  reared  and 
sprang.  He  started  violently  and  suddenly  from  side  to 
side.  He  used  every  instinctive  contortion  with  a  view  to 
throw  his  rider  and  to  regain  liberty.  It  was  in  vain;  his 
efforts  became  frantic  when  he  found  his  master  unmoved 
from  his  seat,  and  with  a  violent,  convulsive,  furious  plunge 
he  fell  down  dead. 

Conscious  of  the  pain  which  this  result  would  cause  his 
mother  Washington  frankly  told  her  the  story  of  his  con- 

*  Letter  to  Charles  Brown,  April  24,  1851. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  45 

duct,  and  she,  in  her  characteristic  manner,  said  in  reply: 
"  I  regret  the  loss  of  my  favorite,  but  I  rejoice  in  my  son 
who  always  speaks  the  truth." 

As  proofs  of  his  diligence  and  industry  at  school,  manu- 
scripts written  by  him  in  boyhood  and  filling  several  quires 
of  paper,  exhibit  records  of  his  studies  in  geometry, 
trigonometry,  and  surveying;  and  evince  the  same  regard 
to  neatness  and  method,  and  the  same  care  and  accuracy 
which  were  afterward  so  conspicuous  in  his  letters,  his  plans 
of  military  operations,  and  his  ofhcial  documents.  There  are 
extant  also  specimens  of  his  ornamental  penmanship,  and 
of  his  fancy  pen-sketch  creations  of  heads  half-human,  and 
of  nondescript  birds,  and  "  gorgons  dire." 

In  a  manuscript  book  which  he  wrote  at  the  age  of  thir- 
teen years  are  copies  of  notes  of  hand,  bills  of  exchange,  re- 
ceipts, bonds,  indentures,  bills  of  sale,  land  warrants,  leases, 
deeds,  and  wills,  designed  to  familiarize  him  with  proper 
forms  for  transacting  business. 

He  seems  however  to  have  devoted  himself  in  boyhood 
not  merely  to  intellectual  acquirements.  He  collected  and 
copied  out  in  one  of  his  manuscripts,  "  Rules  of  Behavior 
in  Company  and  Conversation."  And  the  general  char- 
acter of  these  rules,  by  which  he  sought  to  regulate  his 
demeanor,  affords  the  best  evidence  of  his  desire  to  culti- 
vate the  elegant  courtesies  and  to  practice  the  moral  duties 
which  give  refined  society  its  peculiar  charm. 

Among  his  rules  are  the  following : — 

"  I.  Read  no  letters,  books,  or  papers  in  company;  but 
when  there  is  a  necessity  for  doing  it  you  must  ask  leave. 
Come  not  near  the  books  or  writings  of  any  one  so  as  to 
read  them  unless  desired;  nor  give  your  opinion  of  them 
unasked.  Also  look  not  nigh  when  another  is  writing  a 
letter. 


46  WASHINGTON, 

"  2.  Show  not  yourself  glad  at  the  misfortune  of  an- 
other, though  he  were  your  enemy. 

"  3.  When  you  meet  with  one  of  greater  quality  than 
yourself,  stop  and  retire,  especially  if  it  be  at  a  door  or  any 
strait  place,  to  give  way  for  him  to  pass. 

"  4.  Let  your  discourse  with  men  of  business  be  short 
and  comprehensive. 

"  5.  In  writing  or  speaking  give  to  every  person  his  due 
title,  according  to  his  degree,  and  the  custom  of  the  place. 

"  6.  Wherein  you  reprove  another,  be  unblamable  your- 
self ;  for  example  is  more  prevalent  than  precepts.     . 

"7.  Be  not  hasty  to  believe  flying  reports  to  the  dis- 
paragement of  any. 

"  8.  In  your  apparel  be  modest,  and  endeavor  to  accom- 
modate nature  rather  than  to  procure  admiration. 

"  9.  Associate  yourself  with  men  of  good  quality  if  you 
esteem  your  own  reputation;  for  it  is  better  to  be  alone 
than  in  bad  company. 

"  10.  Deride  no  man's  misfortune  though  there  seem  to 
be  some  cause. 

"11.  Whisper  not  in  the  company  of  others. 

"  12.  Be  not  apt  to  relate  news  if  you  know  not  the 
truth  thereof. 

"  13.  Be  not  curious  to  know  the  affairs  of  others ;  neither 
approach  to  those  that  speak  in  private. 

"  14.  Undertake  not  what  you  cannot  perform ;  but  be 
careful  to  keep  your  promise. 

"  15.  Speak  not  evil  of  the  absent  for  it  is  unjust. 

"  16.  Be  not  angry  at  table  whatever  happens ;  and  if  you 
have  reason  to  be  so  show  it  not.  Put  on  a  cheerful 
countenance,  especially  if  there  be  strangers,  for  good 
humor  makes  one  dish  of  meat  a  feast. 

"  17.  When  you  speak  of  God  or  his  attributes  let  it  be 
seriously,  in  reverence. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  47 

"  1 8.  Honor  and  obey  your  natural  parents  though  they 
be  poor. 

*'  19.  Let  your  recreations  be  manful,  not  sinful. 

''  20.  Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast  that  little  spark 
of  celestial  fire  called  Conscience." 

These  and  similar  memoranda  of  the  conventionalities  of 
elegant,  social  intercourse  enabled  him  to  control  himself 
by  a  well-provided  formulary  instead  of  trusting  to  the 
hazard  of  mere  impromptu  impulses.  They  were  the  trellis- 
work  that  secured  an  order,  regularity,  and  beauty  which 
imparted  a  remarkable  propriety  and  decorum  to  his  con- 
duct at  all  times  and  in  all  circumstances. 

There  are  also  extant  certain  selections  in  verse,  chiefly 
of  a  religious  character,  made  by  him  at  this  dawning 
period  of  his  life.  They  are  of  little  merit  as  exhibitions  of 
genius  in  their  author,  or  of  poetic  taste  in  their  compiler ; 
yet  they  are  indicative  of  what  may  be  regarded  as  not  less 
desirable  in  an  intelligent  and  ingenuous  lad  of  thirteen 
years  of  age,  an  interest  in  devout  sentiments. 

He  did  not  enjoy  the  advantages  of  a  classical  education. 
And  not  only  was  he  unable  to  read  either  Greek  or  Latin, 
but  he  could  neither  speak  nor  write  in  any  modern  for- 
eign language.  While  in  daily  intercouse  with  French 
officers,  at  one  period  of  the  Revolution,  he  was  compelled 
in  interchanging  opinions  with  them  to  rely  in  general  upon 
the  aid  of  an  interpreter. 

His  decided  predilection  was  for  mathematics.  The 
exactness,  order,  and  certainty  of  its  processes  always  were 
more  congenial  to  the  nature  of  his  mind  than  any  of  the 
charms  of  belles-lettres. 

The  only  occasion  of  his  being  beguiled  to  compose 
poetic  strains  was  when,  about  two  years  before  leaving 
school,  and  when  the  down  upon  his  cheek  and  chin  gave 
its  first    distinct  hints  of    his  adolescence,  he    felt  some 


48  WASHINGTON. 

throbbings  of  the  tender  passion.  In  one  of  his  early  manu- 
scripts are  found  plaintive  breathings  of  this  nature,  ut- 
tered for  the  relief  of  his  "  poor  restless  heart." 

The  object  of  his  attachment  it  is  said  was  Miss  Grimes,* 

*  Or  perhaps  Mary  Bland.  [More  probably  Miss  Betsy  Fauntle- 
roy.  In  a  communication  to  "  Harper's  Weekly,"  of  May  4,  1889, 
the  writer  answered  as  follows  the  question  who  was  Washington's 
"  Lowland  beauty:  " 

Of  late  years  the  opinion  has  gained  that  the  lady  was  Sally 
Gary,  who  became  the  wife  of  George  William  Fairfax.  This  has 
been  hitherto  my  own  conviction,  based  on  certain  letters  found 
among  the  papers  of  Mrs.  Fairfax  at  her  death,  at  Bath,  England 
(181 1),  at  the  age  of  eighty-one.  It  now  appears  to  me  certain  that 
the  "  Lowland  beauty  " —  Washington's  first  love  —  was  Miss 
Betsy  Fauntleroy.  Under  date  of  20th  May,  1752,  Washington 
writes  to  "  William  Fauntleroy,  Sr. :  " 

"  Sir. —  I  should  have  been  down  long  before  this,  but  my  busi- 
ness in  Frederick  detained  me  somewhat  longer  than  I  expected, 
and  immediately  upon  my  return  from  thence  I  was  taken  with  a 
violent  pleurise,  which  has  reduced  me  very  low;  but  purpose,  as 
soon  as  I  recover  my  strength,  to  wait  on  Miss  Betsy,  in  hopes  of 
a  revocation  of  the  former  cruel  sentence,  and  see  if  I  can  meet 
with  any  alteration  in  my  favor.  I  have  enclosed  a  letter  to  her, 
which  should  be  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  delivery  of  it.  I 
have  nothing  tO'  add  but  my  best  respects  to  your  good  lady  and 
family." 

As  William  Fauntleroy,  Sr.,  had  a  granddaughter  named  Eliza- 
beth, it  is  a  fair  inference  that  she  was  the  Betsy  referred  to. 
That  she  was  the  "  Lowland  beauty  "  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact 
that  the  letter  in  which  this  phrase  occurs,  though  undated,  bears 
evidence  of  having  been  written  about  the  time  which  the  prob- 
abilities of  such  explanation  suggest.  The  letter  is  addressed 
"  Dear  Friend  Robin  " —  possibly  Robert  Washington  of  Ghotauk, 
affectionately  remembered  in  his  will  —  and  the  material  part  is  as 
follows:  "My  place  of  residence  is  at  present  at  his  lordship's, 
where  I  might,  was  my  heart  disengaged,  pass  my  time  very  pleas- 
antly, as  there's  a  very  agreeable  young  lady  lives  in  the  same  house 
(Gol.  George  Fairfax's  wife's  sister).     But  as  that's  only  adding 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  49 

of  Westmoreland,  whom  he  calls  his  ''  lowland  beauty,"  and 
who  afterward,  as  Mrs.  Lee,  was  the  mother  of  Gen.  Henry 
Lee,  so  famous  in  the  Revolutionary  War  as  "  Light 
Horse  Harry,"  and  always  regarded  by  Washington  with 
particular  favor.  But  his  "  young  love  "  was  not  declared, 
although  it  occasioned  for  more  than  two  years  the  in- 
quietude and  depression  of  spirits  usual  in  such  cases. 

[Witjh  the  letter  of  May  20,  1752,  to  William  Fauntleroy, 
Sr.,  in  regard  to  a  "purpose  to  wait  on  Miss  Betsy 
[Fauntleroy],  in  hopes  of  a  revocation  of  the  former  cruel 
sentence,  and  see  if  I  can  meet  with  any  alteration  in  my 
favor,"  and  with  "  a  letter  enclosed  to  her,"  it  seems  un- 
necessary to  look  in  any  other  direction  for  the  object  of 
young  Washington's  interest.  It  can  be  readily  under- 
stood that  he  was  not  a  lady's  man  as  the  average  good- 
looking  youth  may  readily  be.  He  was  large,  awkward, 
emotional,  and  bashful,  with  nothing  to  give  him  self- 
possession  with  people  beyond  the  circle  of  his  familiar 
friends.  He  was  not  long  in  acquiring  the  poise  of  self- 
command  and  self-carriage,  but  the  earliest  falHng  in  love 
antedated  that  particular  discipline.] 

Writing  to  a  young  companion  whom  he  calls  his  "  dear 

fuel  to  fire,  it  makes  me  the  more  uneasy,  for  by  often  and  un- 
avoidably being  in  company  with  her  revives  my  former  passion  for 
your  Lowland  beauty;  whereas,  was  I  to  live  more  retired  from 
young  women,  I  might  deviate  in  some  measure  my  sorrows  by 
burying  that  chaste  and  troublesome  passion  in  the  grave  of  ob- 
livion or  etearnall  forgetfulness,  for  as  I  am  very  well  assured, 
that's  the  only  antidote  or  remedy  that  I  ever  shall  be  relieved  by 
or  only  recess  that  can  administer  any  cure  or  help  to  me,  as  I 
am  well  convinced,  was  I  ever  to  attempt  anything,  I  should  only 
get  a  denial  which  would  be  only  adding  grief  to  uneasiness." 
This  letter,  written  after  George  Fairfax's  marriage  (17th  Decem- 
ber, 1748),  and  before  the  journey  to  the  Barbadoes  (September, 
1751),  was  prpbably  written  in  the  earlier  part  of  1751.] 
4 


50  WASHINGTON. 

friend  Robin,"  he  remarks  that .  female  society  tended  to 
keep  alive  his  passion,  whereas,  says  he,  by  living  "  more 
retired  from  young  women,  I  might,  in  some  measure, 
alleviate  my  sorrows,  by  burying  that  chaste  and  trouble- 
some passion  in  the  grave  of  oblivion." 

This  natural  and  venial  indulgence  in  youthful  romancing 
—  although  rather  precocious  in  a  boy  of  fourteen  years  — 
would  not  perhaps  deserve  to  be  mentioned,  did  it  not 
show  that  Washington's  mind,  even  at  that  period  of  his 
deepest  interest  in  his  studies,  was  not  so  absorbed  in 
theorems  and  computations  as  to  be  unconscious  of  na- 
ture's gentlest  sympathies,  and  insensible  to  impressions 
associated  with  lifers  purest  and  most  refined  delights.  His 
mind  was  sturdy,  but  his  heart  was  ever  gentle  and  sus- 
ceptible. 

In  the  estimate  we  form  of  the  illustrious  and  the  great, 
we  are  apt  to  be  misled  by  the  supposition,  that,  in  the 
range  of  their  passions  and  emotions,  they  are  not  as 
other  men.  And  the  dazzling  halo  of  this  illusion  often 
imparts  to  them  vague  and  mysterious  associations,  by 
which  their  example,  is  often  greatly  diminished  in  its 
influence.  It  is  pleasing  therefore  to  record  in  the  his- 
tory of  Washington  that  he  was  no  ideal  and  unreal  crea- 
tion; that  he  had,  as  we  have,  a  heart  as  well  as  a  head; 
that  he,  as  all  other  children,  in  their  development  of  man- 
hood, passed  through  the  metamorphoses  of  child,  little 
man,  boy  soldier,  lad,  youth,  lover;  and  that  he  is  to  be 
regarded  not  as  an  inimitable  paragon,  to  excite  wonder 
and  admiration,  but  as  a  beautiful  model,  for  all  young 
persons  who  would  practice  filial  obedience,  truth,  and 
honesty,  diligence  in  study,  decorum  in  behavior,  and 
whatever  else  is  commendable  in  a  lad  or  young  man, 
at  home  and  at  school,  in  sports  among  playmates,  and 
in  amusements  and  recreations  of  the  social  circle. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  51 

They  who  would  emulate  the  achievements  of  his  man- 
hood should  study  and  imitate  the  virtues  of  his  early 
youth.  When,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
Lafayette,  about  to  depart  for  France,  paid  a  farewell 
visit  to  the  mother  of  Washington,  and  mingled  with  his 
adieus  a  glowing  encomium  on  her  illustrious  son,  she 
replied,  in  her  characteristic  manner  and  in  memorable 
words,  "  I  am  not  surprised  at  what  George  has  done, 
for  he  was  always  a  good  boy/' 


CHAPTER  III. 

INCIDENTS  OF  HIS  YOUTH. 

1748-1752. 

SOON  after  leaving  school  (1748),  Washington  be- 
came for  a  time  an  inmate  in  the  family  of  his 
eldest  half-brother  Lawrence,  on  his  large  patri- 
monial  estate,   which   then   comprised   2,500   acres,   and 
which  he  called   Mount   Vernon,  in  compHment  to  the 
admiral  under  whom  he  served  in  the  West  Indies. 

This  half-brother,  whom  his  father  sent  to  England  for 
his  education,  had  enjoyed  what  were  at  that  time  un- 
common advantages,  social  and  intellectual;  and  his  im- 
provement of  them  appeared  in  his  mental  acquirements, 
his  cultivated  manners,  and  his  elegant  accomplishments. 
He  was  very  afifectionately  attached  to  his  half-brother 
George;  and  it  was  his  ambition  and  delight  to  aid  and 
counsel  him  in  all  his  studies,  and  to  contribute  in  every 
way  to  his  welfare  and  advancement,  while  he  now  prose- 
cuted his  mathematical  studies  and  prepared  himself  for 
the  duties  of  a  scientific  practical  surveyor.  The  daily 
conversation  and  the  countless  little  hints  and  suggestions 
of  such  a  mentor  as  his  highly-educated  brother  Law- 
rence were  to  our  ingenuous  young  student,  then  in  his 
seventeenth  year,  heaven's  special  provision  suited  to  his 
case,  as  refreshing,  fertilizing  dew  to  the  surrounding 
green  pastures. 

Three  years  before  this  time,  Lawrence  had  married 
Anne   Fairfax,   eldest   daughter  of  William   Fairfax,  of 

(62) 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  53 

Fairfax  county,  Virginia,  who  had  served  in  the  British 
army  in  Spain,  the  East  Indies,  and  New  Providence. 
He  had  been  also  Governor  of  New  Providence,  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Bahamas,  and  President  of  His  Majesty's 
council   in  Virginia. 

[From  New  Providence  in  the  West  Indies,  after  some 
years  of  service  there,  William  Fairfax  had  been  trans- 
ferred to  Salem,  Massachusetts,  upon  his  request  for  a 
change  from  the  unfavorable  climate  of  the  Bahamas; 
and  there  his  daughter  Anne  was  born  —  a  Massachusetts 
girl  therefore;  there  also  Anne's  mother  died,  and  a 
Salem  lady,  who  had  been  her  intimate  friend,  became 
in  due  time  her  father's  second  wife.  After  nine  years  at 
Salem,  in  charge  of  the  customs  there,  William  Fairfax 
was  persuaded  by  Lord  Thomas  Fairfax,  of  whom  he 
was  a  cousin,  to  settle  in  Virginia,  as  agent  for  the  sur- 
vey, sale,  and  general  care  of  the  lands  held  by  Lord 
Fairfax.  The  fine  estate  of  Belvoir,  five  miles  down  the 
Potomac  from  Mount  Vernon,  was  the  home  of  William 
Fairfax,  with  his  Massachusetts  wife,  while  his  Massa- 
chusetts daughter  was  the  mistress  of  Mount  Vernon.  In 
both  of  these  houses  George  Washington  was  at  home,  as 
he  also  was  with  Lord  Fairfax  at  Greenway  Court,  a 
house  which  he  occupied.] 

The  alliance  of  Lawrence  Washington  with  a  daughter 
of  such  a  person  opened  the  way  for  his  brother  George's 
acquaintance  with  the  Fairfax  family,  and  eventually  for 
his  intimate  friendship  with  the  most  prominent  member 
of  the  family,  Thomas,  the  sixth  Lord  Fairfax,  who  was 
a  man  of  education  and  of  great  moral  worth.  He  was 
a  graduate  of  Oxford  University,  and  the  contributor,  it 
is  said,  of  some  of  the  papers  in  Addison's  Spectator. 
He  held  a  commission  also  in  a  regiment  of  horse. 

Descended  from   an  ancient  baronial  family,  and  in- 


54:  WASHINGTON. 

heriting  a  large  fortune,  his  lordship  had  moved  in  the 
best  circles  of  English  society.  It  was  his  lot  however 
to  be  grievously  disappointed  in  an  affair  of  the  heart. 
He  sought  seclusion  from  the  gay  world.  On  visiting 
his  American  estates  in  Virginia,  which  he  inherited  from 
his  mother,  he  was  charmed  with  the  people,  the  country, 
and  the  climate;  and  he  resolved  to  bid  adieu  to  old 
associates  and  to  settle  in  the  New  World. 

His  mother  was  Catharine,  daughter  of  Thomas,  Lord 
Culpeper,  and  the  estates  in  Virginia,  which  he  inherited 
from  her,  comprehended,  according  to  the  original  grant 
which  Lord  Culpeper  received  from  Charles  H,  all  the 
lands  between  the  Potomac  and  Rappahannock  rivers. 
These  lands,  it  was  estimated,  contained  5,700,000  acres.* 
They  included  a  tract  of  country  comprising  about  a  sev- 
enth part  of  the  present  area  of  Virginia,  and  are  now 
divided  into  twenty-one  counties,  f  For  several  years 
William  Fairfax,  as  his  lordship's  agent,  superintended 
these  estates. 

Lord  Thomas,  as  he  was  called,  was  a  man  of  remark- 
able appearance.  He  was  tall,  muscular,  and  swarthy, 
with  prominent  features,  and  of  an  uncommonly  large 
frame.  He  took  up  his  permanent  residence  on  a  domain 
which  he  named  "  Greenway  Court,"  thirteen  miles  south- 
east of  Winchester,  capital  of  Frederick  county.  There 
he   lived   upon  his  rents,  paying  little  attention  to  the 

*  Barnaby's  "  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settlements  in  America 
in  the  years  1759  and  1760,  with  Observations  upon  the  State  of  the 
Colonies,"  p.  159.  The  whole  State  comprises  thirty-nine  millions 
two  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand  acres. 

t  The  counties  of  Lancaster,  Northumberland,  Richmond,  West- 
moreland, Stafford,  King  George,  Prince  William,  Fairfax,  Loudon, 
Fauquier,  Culpeper,  Clarke,  Madison,  Page,  Shenandoah,  Hardy, 
Hampshire,  Morgan,  Berkeley,  Jefferson,  and  Frederick, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  55 

cultivation  of  his  grounds,  for  he  preferred  the  wildness 
of  primeval  forest  scenery.  He  led  the  life  of  a  bachelor 
and  occupied  a  single  clapboard  story-and-a-half  house.* 
From  the  abundance  of  his  pecuniary  means,  he  dis- 
pensed his  hospitalities  and  benefactions,  especially  among 
the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  the  community,  in  so 
liberal  a  manner  and  in  so  noble  a  spirit  that  he  won  for 
himself  universal  admiration  and  esteem.  He  became  the 
principal  magistrate  of  Frederick  county,  and  presided  at 
the  Winchester  provincial  courts ;  and,  in  the  French  and 
Indian  War,  he  led  the  troops  of  his  county  to  the  aid 
of  Washington,  then  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Colonial 
Army  of  Virginia. 

During  the  war  for  independence  however  he  had  no 
sympathy  with  his  gallant  young  friend,  for  he  continued 
to  the  last  hour  of  his  long  Hfe  —  having  attained  to  the 
age  of  ninety-two  —  a  loyal  subject  of  Great  Britain. 

His  death  occurred  soon  after  the  capture  of  Corn- 
wallis,  and,  it  is  said,  was  hastened  by  the  effect  produced 
upon  his  mind  by  that  event.  He  had  scarcely  heard  the 
tidings,  when  he  said  to  his  body-servant,  "  Come,  Joe, 
carry  me  to  my  bed;  for  Fm  sure  'tis  high  time  for  me 
to  die." 

He  gave  the  land  on  which  was  erected,  at  Winchester, 
the  first  Episcopal  church  built  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia. 
Under  the  chancel  of  that  church  his  body  was  deposited 
in  a  coffin  mounted  with  massive  silver;  and  when  the 
old  church  was  taken  down  and  replaced  by  the  new  one, 
his  remains  were  removed,  and  honored  with  a  renewal 
of  the   special  mark  of  distinction  previously  bestowed 

*  [Precisely  the  style  of  house  in  which  George  Washington  was 
born.] 


56  WASHINGTON, 

on  them.  A  monumental  slab  was  also  erected  to  his 
memory. 

When  first  he  met  the  future  chief,  he  had  just  come 
to  America,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven  years,  to  reside  on 
his  domain.  He  was,  at  this  time,  an  inmate  at  Belvoir, 
the  residence  of  his  kinsman  and  agent,  a  short  distance 
from  Mount  Vernon.  There,  in  addition  to  other  sons 
and  daughters  in  the  family,  was  the  highly-educated  eld- 
est son  of  William  Fairfax,  George  William,  then  about 
twenty-two  years  of  age,  with  his  bride  and  her  sister, 
accomplished  daughters  of  Colonel  Carey,  of  Virginia. 

In  the  almost  daily  society  of  such  persons,  young 
Washington  enjoyed  rare  opportunities  for  intellectual 
and  social  culture.  His  character  was  appreciated  by 
them.  He  won  their  esteem  by  his  sterling  integrity,  his 
ingenuousness,  and  his  sound  good  sense.  And  Lord 
Thomas  was  particularly  attached  to  him. 

His  lordship,  fond  of  hunting,  kept  his  horses  and  his 
hounds.  And  his  young  American  friend,  also  greatly 
delighting  in  the  chase,  became  the  companion  of  the  old 
nobleman  in  his  favorite  sport,  and  shared  with  him  many 
of  his  adventures  *'  by  field  and  flood." 

When  his  lordship  soon  after  resolved  to  reclaim  large 
portions  of  the  choicest  of  his  lands  from  settlers  who 
occupied  them  without  right  or  title,  it  was  an  essential 
prerequisite  that  the  property  should  be  surveyed  and 
divided  into  lots.  Washington's  exercises,  from  time  to 
time,  in  the  practical  use  of  his  surveyor's  instruments, 
on  his  brother's  grounds,  not  only  were  observed  with 
interest  by  the  families  at  Mount  Vernon  and  Belvoir,  but 
led  Lord  Fairfax  to  entertain  a  very  favorable  opinion 
of  his  young  friend's  acquirements.  To  him  therefore  he 
confided  the  proposed  important  and  laborious  service. 

Washington  was   then  just   entering  his   seventeenth 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  57 

year  (March,  1748).  But  he  was  remarkable  for  his 
knowledge  and  skill  as  a  practical  surveyor;  and  not  less 
for  other  qualifications,  personal  and  moral,  just  as  neces- 
sary for  the  due  performance  of  his  task. 

It  was,  on  many  accounts,  an  arduous  and  perilous 
undertaking.  But  our  youthful  adventurer,  accompanied 
by  the  Hon.  William  Fairfax's  son,  George  William,  set 
out  for  the  Alleghany  mountains  and  the  South  Branch 
of  the  Potomac  on  his  hazardous  expedition,  the  priva- 
tions and  fatigues  of  which  are  recorded  in  a  journal 
written  by  him  at  the  time.  The  entries  are  often  very 
brief  and  general ;  but  they  afford  striking  pictures  of  the 
scenes  through  which  he  passed,  and  give  many  interest- 
ing details  of  his  experiences  in  border  life,  and  in  the 
hardships  of  the  backwoodsman. 

[The  surveys  had  been  going  on  for  some  time  in  charge 
of  a  regularly-licensed  surveyor,  and  Washington  did  no 
more  than  to  take  part  in  them.  He  was  not  at  first  in 
possession  of  a  license,  which  was  necessary  to  make  a 
survey  legal.  He  merely  assisted  therefore,  or,  having 
made  a  special  survey,  secured  the  signature  on  it  of  a 
licensed  surveyor.  In  due  time  he  obtained  a  license 
and  was  able  to  authenticate  with  his  own  name  the  sur- 
veys which  he  made.    See  the  more  full  statement  later  on.] 

JOURNAL  OF  JOURNEY  OVER  THE  MOUNTAINS. 

"March  13th  (1748).  Rode  to  his  lordship's  quarter. 
About  four  miles  higher  up  the  river  Shenandoah,  we  went 
through  most  beautiful  groves  of  sugar-trees,  and  spent 
the  best  part  of  the  day  in  admiring  the  trees,  and  the 
richness  of  the  land. 


^8  WASHINGTON. 

"  14th.  We  sent  our  baggage  to  Captain  Kite's,  near 
Fredericktown,  and  went  ourselves  down  the  river  about 
sixteen  miles  —  the  land  exceedingly  rich  all  the  way, 
producing  abundance  of  grain,  hemp,  and  tobacco  —  in 
order  to  lay  off  some  land  on  Gate's  Marsh  and  Long 
Marsh. 

"  15th.  Worked  hard  till  night,  and  then  returned. 
After  supper  we  were  lighted  into  a  room;  and  I,  not 
being  so  good  a  woodsman  as  the  rest,  stripped  myself 
very  orderly  and  went  into  the  bed,  as  they  called  it,  when, 
to  my  surprise,  I  found  it  to  be  nothing  but  a  little  straw 
matted  together,  without  sheet  or  any  thing  else  but  only 
one  threadbare  blanket,  with  double  its  weight  of  vermin. 
I  was  glad  to  get  up  and  put  on  my  clothes  and  lie  as 
my  companions  did.  Had  we  not  been  very  tired,  I  am 
sure  we  should  not  have  slept  much  that  night.  I  made 
a  promise  to  sleep  so  no  more,  choosing  rather  to  sleep 
in  the  open  air  before  a  fire. 

"  i8th.  We  traveled  to  Thomas  Berwick's  on  the  Poto- 
mac, where  we  found  the  river  exceedingly  high  by  reason 
of  the  great  rains  that  had  fallen  among  the  Alleghanies. 
They  told  us  .it  would  not  be  fordable  for  several  days, 
it  being  now  six  feet  higher  than  usual,  and  rising.  We 
agreed  to  stay  till  Monday.  We  this  day  called  to  see 
the  famed  Warm  Springs.*  We  camped  out  in  the  field 
this  night. 

"  20th.  Finding  the  river  not  much  abated  we  in  the 
evening  swam  our  horses  over  to  the  Maryland  side. 

"  21  St.  We  went  over  in  a  canoe,  and  traveled  up  the 
Maryland  side  all  day,  in  a  continued  rain,  to  Colonel 
Cresap's,  over  against  the  mouth  of  the  South  Branch, 
about    forty    miles    from    our   place   of    starting    in   the 

*  In  Bath  county,  in  the  central  part  of  Virginia. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  59 

morning,  and  over  the  worst  road,  I  believe,  that  ever 
was  trod  by  man  or  beast. 

"  23d.  Rained  till  about  2  o'clock,  and  then  cleared  up, 
when  we  were  agreeably  surprised  at  the  sight  of  more 
than  thirty  Indians  coming  from  war,  with  only  one  scalp. 
We  had  some  Hquor  with  us,  of  which  we  gave  them  a 
part.  This,  elevating  their  spirits,  put  them  in  the  humor 
of  dancing.  We  then  had  a  war  dance.  After  clearing 
a  large  space  and  making  a  great  fire  in  the  middle,  the 
men  seated  themselves  around  it,  and  the  speaker  made 
a  grand  speech,  telling  them  in  what  manner  they  were 
to  dance.  After  he  had  finished,  the  best  dancer  jumped 
up  as  one  awaked  from  sleep  and  ran  and  jumped  about 
the  ring  in  a  most  comical  manner.  He  was  followed  by 
the  rest.  Then  began  their  music,  which  was  performed 
with  a  pot  half  full  of  water  and  a  deerskin  stretched  tight 
over  it,  and  a  gourd  with  some  shot  in  it  to  rattle,  and  a 
piece  of  horse's  tail  tied  to  it  to  make  it  look  fine.  One 
person  kept  rattling  and  another  drumming  all  the  while 
they  were  dancing. 

"  25th.  Left  Cresap's  and  went  up  to  the  mouth  of  Pat- 
terson's creek.  There  we  swam  our  horses  over  the 
Potomac,  and  went  over  ourselves  in  a  canoe,  and  traveled 
fifteen  miles,  where  we  camped. 

"  26th.  Traveled  up  to  Solomon  Hedge's,  Esquire,  one 
of  his  Majesty's  Justices  of  the  Peace  in  the  county  of 
Frederick,  where  we  camped.  When  we  came  to  supper, 
there  was  neither  a  knife  on  the  table  nor  a  fork,  to  eat 
with;  but,  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  we  had  knives  of 
our  own. 

"  28th.  Traveled  up  the  South  Branch  —  having  come 
to  that  river  yesterday  —  about  thirty  miles  to  Mr.  J.  R.'s 
(horse-jockey),  and  about  seventy  miles  from  the  mouth 
of  the  river. 


60  WASHINGTON, 

"  29th.  This  morning  went  out  and  surveyed  500  acres 
of  land.    Shot  two  wild  turkeys. 

"  30th.  Began  our  intended  business  of  laying  of?  lots. 

"April  2d.  A  blowing,  rainy  night.  Our  straw,  upon 
which  we  were  lying,  took  fire;  but  I  was  luckily  pre- 
served by  one  of  our  men's  awaking  when  it  was  in  a 
flame.     We  have  run  of¥  four  lots  this  day. 

"  4th.  This  morning  Mr.  Fairfax  left  us  with  the  inten- 
tion to  go  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  river.  We  surveyed 
two  lots  and  were  attended  with  a  great  company  of 
people  —  men,  women,  and  children  —  who  followed  us 
through  the  woods,  showing  their  antic  tricks.  They 
seem  to  be  as  ignorant  a  set  of  people  as  the  Indians. 
They  would  never  speak  English,  but  when  spoken  to 
they  all  spoke  Dutch.  This  day  our  tent  was  blown  down 
by  the  violence  of  the  wind. 

"  6th.  The  last  night  was  so  intolerably  smoky  that  we 
were  obliged  to  leave  our  tent  to  the  mercy  of  the  wind 
and  fire.     Attended  this  day  by  the  aforesaid  company. 

"  7th.  This  day  one  of  our  men  killed  a  wild  turkey  that 
weighed  twenty  pounds.  We  surveyed  1,500  acres  of  land 
and  returned  to  Vanmeter's  about  i  o'clock.  I  took  my 
horse  and  went  up  to  see  Mr.  Fairfax.  We  slept  in  Cas- 
sey's  house,  which  was  the  first  night  I  had  slept  in  a  house 
since  we  came  to  the  Branch. 

"  8th.  We  breakfasted  at  Cassey's  and  rode  down  to 
Vanmeter's  to  get  our  company  together,  which,  when  we 
had  accomplished,  we  rode  down  below  the  Trough  to 
lay  off  lots  there.  The  Trough  is  a  couple  of  ledges  of 
mountains,  impassable,  running  side  by  side  for  seven  or 
eight  miles  and  the  river  between  them.  You  must  ride 
round  the  back  of  the  mountains  to  get  below  them.  We 
camped  in  the  woods  and  after  we  had  pitched  our  tent  and 
made  a  large  fire,  we  pulled  out  our  knapsack  to  recruit 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  61 

ourselves.  Every  one  was  his  own  cook.  Our  spits  were 
forked  sticks,  our  plates  were  large  chips.  As  for  dishes 
we  had  none. 

"  loth.  We  took  our  farewell  of  the  Branch  and  traveled 
over  hills  and  mountains  to  Coddy's,  on  Great  Cacapehon, 
about  forty  miles. 

"  I2th.  Mr.  Fairfax  got  safe  home;  and  I  to  my  brother's 
house  at  Mount  Vernon;    which  concludes  my  journal." 

He  received,  the  year  after  the  time  of  this  excursion 
(1749),  the  appointment  of  public  surveyor.  And  he 
prosecuted  the  duties  of  this  office  with  diligence,  travers- 
ing wild  lands  between  the  Potomac  and  the  Rappahan- 
nock. 

The  original  record  of  his  appointment  is  still  extant 
in  one  of  the  books  in  the  county  clerk's  office  at  the  town 
of  Fairfax,  the  county-seat  of  Culpeper.  It  is  in  these 
words : 

"20th  July,  1749  (o.  s.)  George  Washington,  Gent.,  pro- 
duced a  commission  from  the  president  and  master  of 
William  and  Mary  College  appointing  him  to  be  surveyor 
of  this  county,  which  was  read,  and  thereupon  he  took  the 
usual  oaths  to  his  Majesty's  person  and  government  and 
took  and  subscribed  the  abjuration  oath  and  test  and  then 
took  the  oath  of  surveyor  according  to  law," 

The  privations  and  rough  fare  of  his  life  in  the  woods 
continued  for  three  years.  Writing  to  a  friend  he  says : 
"  Since  you  received  my  letter  in  October  last,  I  have 
not  slept  above  three  or  four  nights  in  a  bed;  but,  after 
walking  a  good  deal  all  day  I  have  lain  down  before  the 
fire  upon  a  little  hay,  straw,  fodder,  or  a  bear's-skin,  which- 
ever was  to  be  had  with  man,  wife,  and  children,  like  dogs 
and  cats,  and  happy  is  he  who  gets  the  berth  nearest  the 


6^  WASHINGTON. 

fire.  Nothing  would  make  it  pass  off  tolerably  but  a  good 
reward.  A  doubloon  is  my  constant  gain  every  day  that 
the  weather  will  permit  my  going  out,  and  sometimes  six 
pistoles.*  The  coldness  of  the  weather  will  not  allow  of 
my  making  a  long  stay  as  the  lodging  is  rather  too  cold 
for  the  time  of  year.  I  have  never  had  my  clothes  off, 
but  have  lain  and  slept  in  them,  except  the  few  nights  I 
have  been  in  Fredericktown."f 

[There  is  no  indication  to  what  time  this  letter  applies ; 
but  probably  the  early  winter  (perhaps  of  1749)  in  con- 
nection with  an  expedition  "  To  Survey  the  Land  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Little  Cacapehon  and  the  mouth  of  Fifteen 
Mile  Creek  for  the  Gentlemen  of  the  Ohio,"  as  a  "  Mem." 
set  down  by  Washington,  later  than  his  record  of  surveys 
made  in  the  expedition  of  March  and  April,  1748.  This 
"  Mem."  we  shall  refer  to  again  presently,  in  the  account 
given  below  of  the  record  of  travel  and  surveys  made  by 
Washington.  There  is  no  ground  for  assuming  that  for 
three  years  the  surveying  work  was  going  on  all  the  time, 
or  the  most  of  the  time.  In  the  letter  to  "  Dear  Friend 
Robin,"  without  date,  but  in  the  "surveying"  period, 
young  Washington  writes  that  his  "  place  of  residence  at 
present  is  at  his  Lordship's  "  (then  at  the  Belvoir  Fairfax 
house),  and  he  talks  of  passing  his  time  there,  evidently 
not  just  then  engaged  in  surveying. 

The  quotations  given  above  do  not  adequately  reflect 
the  real  facts,  not  only  from  omission  of  important  items, 
but  from  failure  to  note  the  significance  of  the  whole  rec- 
ord. The  first  entry  is:  "Friday,  March  nth.  Began 
my  journey  in  company  with  Mr.  George  Fairfax,  Esq.: 

*  Equivalent  to  $20. 

t  Manuscript  letter  appended  to  his  journal,  and  addressed  to  a 
friend  whom  he  calls  "  Dear  Richard."  It  is  evidently  a  rough 
draft  of  what  he  sent  to  his  friend. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  63 

we  travelled  this  day  40  miles."  The  second  entry  is: 
"  Saturday,  March  12th.  Mr.  James  Genn,  the  surveyor, 
came  to  us :  v/e  travelled  over  the  Blue  Ridge  to  Capt. 
Ashby's  on  Shenandoah  River."  Then  follows  :  ''  Sunday, 
March  13.     Rode  to  his  Lordship's  Quarter,"  etc. 

Mr.  James  Genn,  it  will  be  seen,  was  "the  surveyor," 
and  the  party,  having-  travelled  thus  far  in  three  days,  went 
on  sixteen  miles  farther,  "  in  order  to  lay  off  some  Land 
on  Gates  Marsh  and  Long  Marsh."  On  Tuesday,  "  We 
set  out  early  with  intent  to  run  round  the  said  Land,  but 
being  taken  in  a  rain,  and  it  increasing  very  fast  obliged 
us  to  return.  It  clearing  about  one  o'clock,  we  a  second 
time  ventured  out  and  worked  hard  till  night,  then  re- 
turned to  Pennington's  (Gapt.  Isaac  Pennington's,  where 
they  had  put  up  the  day  before.)  This  was  a  single  sur- 
vey, the  mere  laying  off  of  a  large  plot  of  land.  On  the 
i6th  the  party  "  set  out  early  and  finished  about  one 
o'clock,  and  then  travelled  up  to  Fredericktown ;  took  a 
review  of  the  town,  and  returned  to  our  Lodgings  where 
we  had  a  good  dinner  prepared  for  us :  wine  and  rum 
punch  in  plenty ;  and  a  good  feather  bed  with  clean  sheets." 
The  next  day  rain  detained  them,  but  on  clearing  they 
went  on  twenty-five  miles,  and  that  night  "  had  a  tolerable 
good  bed  to  lay  on."  The  following  day  travelled  thirty- 
five  miles  to  the  Potomac,  "  then  about  six  foot  higher 
than  usual  by  reason  of  the  great  rains,"  and  "  camped 
out  in  the  field  "  that  night.  The  20th  was  Sunday,  with 
the  river  not  much  abated,  and  in  the  evening  they  "  swam 
their  horses  over  and  carried  them  to  Gharles  Polks  in 
Maryland  for  pasturage  till  the  next  morning."  Travelled 
the  next  day  up  the  Maryland  side  of  the  Potomac  about 
forty  miles  to  Golonel  Gresaps,  "  right  against  the  mouth 
of  the  South  Branch."  The  continued  rain  on  the  next 
day  kept  the  party  at  Gresaps.     The  next  day's  report 


64  WASHINGTON. 

was  of  more  rain  and  seeing  a  party  of  Indians ;  and  noth- 
ing more  than  the  Indians  again  on  the  following  day,  the 
24th.  On  the  25th  an  advance  to  Paterson's  creek,  and 
thence  fifteen  miles  up  that  stream,  and  camped  out.  Fur- 
ther up  the  stream  the  next  day  to  Solomon  Hedges ;  then 
on  Sunday,  the  day  after,  travelled  from  Hedges  over  to 
the  South  Branch,  "  in  order  to  go  about  intended  work 
of  lots."  On  Monday  went  on  up  the  South  Branch 
''  about  30  miles  to  Mr.  James  Rutlidges ;  "  and  Tuesday, 
29th,  "  This  morning  went  out  and  surveyed  500  acres  of 
land,  and  went  down  to  one  Michael  Stumps  on  the  South 
Fork  of  the  Branch."  On  Wednesday,  30th:  "This 
morning  began  our  intended  business  of  laying  ofif  lots. 
We  began  at  the  boundary  line  of  the  northern  10  miles 
above  Stumps,  and  run  off  two  lots  and  returned  to 
Stumps."  Thursday,  31st,  "run  off  three  lots,  and  re- 
turned to  our  camping  place  at  Stumps."  Friday,  April 
1st,  "  run  off  three  lots  and  returned  to  camp."  Saturday, 
April  2d,  "  run  off  four  lots  this  day  which  reached  below 
Stumps."  On  Sunday,  the  3d,  after  a  night  in  which  the 
wind  carried  quite  off  their  tent,  so  that  they  were 
"  obliged  to  lie  the  latter  part  of  the  night  without  cover- 
ing," "  several  persons  came  to  see  us,"  and  "  one  of  our 
men  shot  a  wild  turkey."  Monday,  April  4th :  "  This 
morning  Mr.  Fairfax  left  us  with  intent  to  go  down  by 
the  mouth  of  the  Branch.  We  did  two  lots,  and  was  at- 
tended by  a  great  company  of  people  as  we  went  through 
the  woods.  They  speak  all  Dutch.  This  day  our  tent  was 
blown  down  by  the  violentness  of  the  wind."  Tuesday, 
5th,  "  we  went  out  and  did  four  lots,  attended  by  the  same 
company  of  people."  That  night  "was  so  intolerably 
smoky  that  we  were  obliged  all  hands  to  leave  the  tent  to 
the  mercy  of  the  wind  and  fire."  On  Wednesday,  6th, 
attended  by  the  same  company  until  about  twelve  o'clock, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  65 

"  when  we  finished,"  and  travelled  down  the  Branch  about 
thirty  miles.  Caught  in  a  very  heavy  rain,  they  "  got  un- 
der a  straw  house  until  the  worst  of  it  was  over."  The 
next  morning  "  surveyed  1,500  acres  of  land  and  returned 
about  one  o'clock."  About  two  "  heard  that  Mr.  Fairfax 
was  at  Peter  Cassey's  about  two  miles  off ;  took  my  horse 
and  went  up  to  see  him;  slept  in  Cassey's  house  which 
was  the  first  night  I  had  slept  in  a  house  since  I  came  up 
to  the  Branch."  Friday,  8th,  "We  breakfasted  at  Cas- 
sey's (Washington  and  Fairfax)  and  rode  down  together 
to  Van  Metris's  to  get  all  our  company  together.  Rode 
down  below  the  Trough  in  order  to  lay  of¥  lots  there. 
Laid  off  one  this  day.  Camped  this  night  in  the  woods 
(instead  of  at  some  settler's  place).  After  we  had  pitched 
our  tent  and  made  a  very  large  fire,  we  pulled  out  our 
knapsack,  in  order  to  recruit  ourselves.  Every  one  was 
his  own  cook.  Our  spits  was  forked  sticks,  our  plates  a 
large  chip."  This  exceptional  experience  is  used  by  Ban- 
croft to  show  what  sort  of  hard  life  Washington  had  to 
live  as  a  surveyor.  The  record  shows  how  they  com- 
monly camped  where  a  settler's  house  was  available  for 
their  meals,  if  not  for  beds,  and  how  in  one  house  there 
were  no  knives,  "  but,  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  we  had 
knives  of  our  own  "  (at  Solomon  Hedges,  March  26th). 
Moreover,  the  very  next  day,  the  record  is,  "  Saturday, 
9th:  Set  the  surveyors  to  work,  whilst  Mr.  Fairfax  and 
myself  stayed  at  the  tent."  Their  rations  were  exhausted, 
and  they  had  to  go  without  until,  at  four  or  five  in  the 
evening,  they  "could  get  some  from  the  neighbors,"  as 
they  had  all  along  done  until  these  two  days  deep  in  the 
woods.  The  two  young  gentlemen,  Washington  and  Fair- 
fax, were  in  charge  of  a  party  of  surveyors;  and  on  this 
day  the  former  says  of  himself  and  his  companion,  after 
they  got  something  to  eat  in  the  evening,  "  We  then  took 
5 


66  WASHINGTON. 

leaves  of  the  rest  of  our  company,  and  rode  down  to  John 
Colins  in  order  to  set  off  the  next  day  homewards."  The 
next  day  was  Sunday,  April  loth,  and  the  two  young  men 
"  travelled  over  hills  and  mountains  to  Coddy's,  on  Great 
Cacapehon,  about  forty  miles."  The  next  day  they  trav- 
elled to  Fredericktown,  and  the  day  after  a  further  long 
journey  to  get  over  the  Ridge.  A  third  day  brought  them 
home. 

These  records  show  twelve  days  of  surveying  in  thirty- 
four  days,  and  in  four  special  places,  without  the  least  at- 
tempt anywhere  at  a  general  survey.  They  do  not  show 
Washington  acting  as  a  surveyor,  but  merely  taking  a 
hand  in  the  work  being  done  by  a  party  of  surveyors.  It 
was  a  year  and  four  months  after  this  before  Washington 
had  a  license  under  which  he  could  himself  act  as  a  sur- 
veyor, and  even  then  he  did  no  more  than  to  execute 
special  surveys.  In  one  only  of  the  four  situations  men- 
tioned above  were  any  considerable  number  of  lots  sur- 
veyed, and  only  seven  days  were  necessary  for  this;  nor 
was  it  Washington's  work;  it  was  the  work  of  a  party  of 
surveyors  under  Mr.  Genn,  "the  surveyor,"  in  which 
Washington  assisted  in  only  a  minor  way.  The  whole 
story  of  Lord  Fairfax  wanting  his  domain  surveyed,  and 
intrusting  Washington  at  sixteen  with  the  work,  and  the 
latter  going  on  as  a  surveyor  for  three  years,  until  he 
was  nineteen,  is  unhistorical.  For  the  first  half  nearly  of 
the  three  years,  until  July,  1749,  Washington  was  not  a 
surveyor  and  could  only  work  at  it  under  some  one  who 
was.  For  the  second  half,  and  a  little  more,  of  the  three 
years,  he  did  no  more  than  to  execute  special  surveys, 
laying  off  an  estate  here,  and  a  group  of  lots  there.  The 
record  of  the  early  work,  as  given  above,  has  never  been 
fully  and  correctly  given.     Even  Mr.  W,  C  Ford's  edi- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  67 

tion,  with  all  its  pretension  to  reproduce  the  original, 
leaves  the  whole  matter  in  confusion. 

There  is  in  the  Department  of  State  at  Washington  an 
ancient  blank-book,  originally  of  very  nice  quality,  which 
has  in  it  the  record  which  Washington  made  of  the  first 
weeks  of  his  active  life,  in  March  and  April,  1748,  when 
he  was  a  youth  of  sixteen.  The  new  edition  of  "  Wash- 
ington's Writings"  draws  first  from  this  book,  and  by 
comparison  with  the  original  we  soon  see  how  Mr.  Ford 
works. 

Mr.  Ford  omits,  at  the  top  of  page  i,  volume  I,  the  title 
to  what  he  calls  ''the  earliest  manuscript  that  I  have 
found,  except  his  studies  in  surveying  and  summaries  of 
his  reading,"  and  of  which  he  says  that  it  "  is  printed  from 
the  original  in  the  Department  of  State."  The  original 
begins:  "A  Journal  of  my  Journey  over  the  Mountains, 
began  Fryday  the  nth  of  March  1747-8."  Mr.  Ford  omits 
this,  and  gives  in  place  of  it,  "Journal  of  a  Survey,  1748," 
which  is  not  in  the  original.  Not  only  so,  but  Mr.  Ford 
is  entirely  wrong  in  putting  the  title  "  Journal  of  a  Sur- 
vey "  to  the  document  which  Washington  called  "  Jour- 
nal of  my  Journey." 

The  original  which  Mr.  Ford  has  used  is  in  a  small 
blank-book,  on  the  front  cover  of  which  is  a  remnant  of 
the  clasp,  showing  this  to  be  the  front  cover,  and  the  in- 
scription written  with  a  pen. 

Journey  over  the  Moun- 
tains in  1747  — 

Survey  Notes 

Youthful  letters 

Mem^  &c. 

A  little  scrutiny  shows  that  at  one  and  the  same  time 
Washington  made  a  double  use  of  the  book.  On  the  first 
page,  in  the  front  of  the  book,  he  begins  a  Journal-Record 


68  WASHINGTON. 

of  his  Surveys,  as  follows:  ''  March  ye  15th,  1747-8  Sur- 
veyed for  George  Fairfax,  Esq.r.  a  Tract  of  Land  lying 
on  Cotes  Marsh  and  Long  Marsh  beginning  at  three  Red 
Oaks  Fx  on  a  Ridge  the  No.  side  a  spring  Branch  being 
corner  to  the  623  acre  Tract,"  etc.  The  record  of  this 
survey  fills  the  first  page  and  two-thirds  of  the  second. 
The  third  page  has  the  record  of  another  survey,  begin- 
ning: "March  29,  1748,  Surveyed  for  Mr  James  Rut- 
lidge  ye  following  a  piece  of  Land  Beginning  at  3  W.  O. 
in  ye  Mannor  Line  by  a  Path  leading  to  ye  Clay  Lick,"  etc. 

On  page  4  begins  a  record  of  Surveys  of  lots,  numbered 
Lot  I,  Lot  2,  etc.,  to  Lot  20,  and  ending  at  the  top  of  page 
12.  This  record  has  the  heading  "  The  Courses  and  Dis- 
tances of  ye  Several  Lots  lay'd  of  on  ye  So  Fork  of  Wap- 
pacomo  Began  March  30th  1748."  Lots  i  and  2  are  placed 
under  March  30th,  Lots  3  to  8  under  March  31st,  Lots 
9  to  12  under  April  2d,  Lots  13  and  14,  and  the  "  Courses 
of  ye  Fork,"  under  April  4th,  Lots  15  to  18  under  April 
5th,  and  Lots  19  and  20  under  April  6th. 

On  page  13  of  the  book  follows  a  memorandum  of  "  The 
Manner  how  to  Draw  up  a  Return  when  Surveyed  for 
His  Lordship  or  any  of  ye  Family."  It  begins :  "  March 
15th,  1747-8  Then  Survey 'd  for  George  Fairfax  Esqr. 
Three  Thousand  and  Twenty  Three  Acres  of  Land  lying 
in  Frederick  County  on  Long  Marsh  Joyning  Thomas 
Johnstones  Land  and  bounded  as  follows."  The  descrip- 
tion follows,  five  lines  on  page  13,  to  the  top  of  page  15. 
The  memorandum  indicates  that  the  return  was  to  be 
signed  as  follows : 

JAMES  GENN 

George  Ashby     )  ^,   . 
Richard  Taylor  ) 
Robert  Ashby  Marker 
Wm.  Lindsey  Pilot 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  69 

Genn  was,  as  we  have  seen,  an  authorized  surveyor, 
which  Washington  at  the  time  was  not,  although  he  be- 
came so  later  by  obtaining  a  license  from  William  and 
Mary  College,  upon  an  examination  duly  passed. 

The  three  following  leaves,  pages  16-21,  are  torn  out, 
with  the  writing  on  them.  Page  22  has,  on  the  top  half, 
"  The  Courses  of  the  Town  of  Alexandria,"  and  "  The 
Measures  of  the  River,"  with  half  a  dozen  lines  under  the 
latter  head.  Then  begins  a  series  of  letters,  or  drafts,  the 
first,  addressed  to  "  Dear  Sir,"  breaking  off  at  the  top  of 
the  next  page,  and  directly  followed,  to  the  middle  of  page 
25,  with  a  letter  addressed,  "  Dear  Friend  John."  Sub- 
stantially the  same  letter,  addressed,  "  Dear  Friend  Robin," 
follows,  from  the  top  of  page  26  to  the  middle  of  page  28. 
A  letter,  addressed  "  Dear  Sally,"  follows  on  pages  29  and 
30.  At  the  top  of  page  31a  letter  was  begun,  "  Dear  Sir 
It  would  be  the  greatest  satisfaction,"  and  then  broken 
off,  but  these  few  words  show  a  care  with  the  pen  distinctly 
better  than  the  usual  hand  of  the  writer,  but  not  another 
hand.  There  comes  next  a  "  Memorandum  to  have  my 
Coat  made  by  the  following  Directions,"  which  extends 
to  the  middle  of  page  32.  Thence  forward  pages  33  to  50 
are  blank.  Pages  52  to  55  had  been  torn  out,  apparently 
blank,  and  a  letter,  addressed  "  Dear  Richard,"  is  written 
on  pages  51  and  56.  At  the  top  of  page  57  is  written: 
"  Mem.  To  Survey  the  Land  at  the  Mouth  of  the  Little 
Cacapehon  and  the  Mouth  of  Fifteen  Mile  Creek  for  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Ohio  Com : "  Two-thirds  of  the  next  page, 
the  58th,  contains  a  letter  beginning:  "I  heartily  con- 
gratulate you  on  the  happy  news  of  my  Brother's  safe  ar- 
rival in  health  in  England,  and  am  joy'd  to  hear  that  his 
stay  is  likely  to  be  so  short."  The  next  thirty-five  pages 
are  blank,  counting  two  in  one  place,  and  eight  in  another, 
torn  out. 


70  WASHINGTON. 

Then  we  come  to  writing  which  is  the  other  side  up, 
being  thirty-four  pages,  and  two  or  three  blank  pages, 
which  begin  from  the  other  end  of  the  volume,  the  back 
end.  On  pages  i  to  24  occurs  what  Washington  entitled, 
"A  Journal  of  my  Journey  over  the  Mountains,  began 
Fryday  the  nth  of  March  1747-8."  It  is  very  plain  that 
while  entering  in  the  front  of  the  book  his  Surveys,  in  the 
form  both  of  records  and  of  a  journal,  Washington  turned 
the  book  round  and  entered  his  journal  of  travel.  Mr. 
Ford  copies  the  journal  of  travel  (as  we  have  done  above), 
omits  the  title  which  stands  at  the  head  of  the  first  page 
of  the  document  itself,  and  puts  to  it  the  title  properly 
belonging  to  the  document  in  the  front  end  of  the  book, 
which  he  does  not  copy,  the  journal-record  of  surveys. 
Mr.  Ford's  first  pa^e  thus  begins  with  an  inexcusable  omis- 
sion of  what  Washington  wrote,  and  a  substitution  of 
something  written  by  himself,  which  is  inapplicable  and 
untrue. 

In  a  note  to  his  false  title,  Mr.  Ford  carries  error  and 
misstatement  still  further.  He  says  :  "  This  is  the  earliest 
manuscript  of  Washington's  that  I  have  found,  except  his 
studies  in  surveying  and  his  summaries  of  his  reading,  and 
is  printed  from  the  original  in  the  Department  of  State. 
It  possesses  little  interest  apart  from  its  early  date.  Lord 
Fairfax  claimed  under  a  patent  of  James  II  all  of  what 
is  now  the  lower  end  of  the  Shenandoah  valley,  and  it  was 
by  his  directions  that  Washington  surveyed  it."  There 
are  about  as  many  errors  as  phrases  in  this  note.  The 
claim  of  Lord  Fairfax  was  simply  that  of  inheritance  from 
his  mother,  daughter  of  Lord  Thomas  Culpeper,  who 
finally  held  a  limited,  though  still  immense,  estate,  under 
an  agreement  on  his  part  which  very  greatly  modified  the 
eflfect  of  the  original  patent.  The  limit,  however,  of  the 
estate,  as  Culpeper's  daughter  left  it  to  her  son,  is  very 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  71 

inadequately  described  by  saying  "  the  lower  end  of  the 
Shenandoah  valley,"  since  it  went  well  into  the  Alleghany 
mountains  beyond.  And,  whatever  were  the  limits,  it  is 
most  incorrect  to  say  that  "  Washington  surveyed  it." 
One  of  the  earliest  letters  of  Washington  speaks  of  "  the 
other  Surveyors,"  in  connection  with  his  request  for  direc- 
tions as  to  "  the  Surveying  of  Cacapehon."  Both  before 
Washington  began,  and  while  he  was  engaged,  there  were 
"  other  surveyors,"  who  must  have  done  much  more  than 
he  did;  and  in  this  first  instance  Washington,  even  if  he 
had  general  direction  as  well  as  gave  assistance,  was  not 
himself  the  surveyor.  His  journal  of  the  second  day  says, 
as  we  have  seen,  "  Mr.  James  Genn,  the  Surveyor,  came 
to  us."  His  memorandum  of  a  proper  return  of  one  of 
the  surveys  shows  that  it  was  to  bear  the  signature  of 
Genn  as  surveyor,  and  the  names  of  four  others,  two 
chainmen,  a  marker  and  a  pilot,  and  not  Washington's 
name  at  all.  The  journal  of  April  9th  says :  ''  Set  the 
Surveyors  to  work,  whilst  Mr.  Fairfax  and  myself  stayed 
at  the  tent."  The  fact  was  that  Washington  was  not  yet 
a  surveyor ;  and  that  when,  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  later, 
he  took  out  a  license  and  thus  became  one,  he  was  by  no 
means  the  only  one,  and  did  not  anything  like  survey  the 
domain  at  large  of  Lord  Fairfax.  No  one  in  fact  "  sur- 
veyed it,"  in  the  sense  of  a  general  survey.  Here  and 
there  estates,  farms,  or  lots  were  marked  off  by  reference 
only  to  arbitrarily  chosen  points  and  bounds. 

Mr.  Ford  says  that  the  Journal  of  a  Journey  is  the  earli- 
est manuscript,  etc. ;  but  this  leaves  out  of  view  the  much 
greater  amount  of  matter  which  Washington  wrote  in  the 
front  of  the  volume,  at  the  back  end  of  which,  reversing 
the  book,  he  wrote  the  journal  of  his  journey.  This  mat- 
ter consists  of  a  record  of  the  surveys  made,  and  of  the 
series  of  letters,  some  idea -of  which  we  have  g^ven.     With 


72  WASHINGTON. 

very  slight  exceptions  the  whole  is  of  extreme  interest, 
and  ought  to  have  been  printed,  with  ample  notes  of  ex- 
planation. It  is  certainly  of  interest  to  find  from  two  por- 
tions of  what  Mr.  Ford  leaves  out,  that  the  first  survey 
made  was  to  mark  ofif  for  George  William  Fairfax  an 
estate  of  3,023  acres,  on  Long  Marsh.  Every  word  of  the 
letters  which  follow  the  record  of  surveys  should  be  given, 
as  only  by  seeing  all  can  one  judge  what  they  really  are, 
whether  they  are  mere  drafts  never  used,  or  actual  letters, 
and  what  autobiographical  significance  they  have. 

Mr.  Ford  says  that  he  has  printed  from  the  original. 
His  preface  tells  us  of  his  rule  that  "  wherever  possible, 
the  original  is  used,"  and  he  further  says,  "  I  have  been 
specially  fortunate  in  my  copyist,  to  whose  industry  and 
accuracy  I  gladly  pay  some  tribute."  But  as  early  as  the 
tenth  Hne  on  the  first  page  there  is  the  palpable  blunder  of 
reading  "spent  the  /a.y^  part  of  the  Day  in  admiring  the 
Trees  and  Richness  of  the  Land,"  when  the  original  most 
plainly  has  "  best  part  of  the  Day."  In  the  thirteenth  line 
of  page  2,  in  "  Had  we  not  have  been,"  the  "  have  "  is  care- 
lessly left  out.  At  the  twentieth  and  twenty-sixth  Hues 
on  page  3,  "  men  "  is  read  for  "  they,"  and  "  full  "  is  in- 
serted into  "  Pot  half  of  water."  In  line  6,  page  4,  "  our  " 
is  inserted  into  "  knives  of  own,"  and  '"  own  "  bracketed 
as  not  in  the  text,  when  it  is  there  most  plainly.  At  line 
4,  page  5,  "  by  "  is  carelessly  put  for  "  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Branch;"  at  hne  18  we  have  "up  till  about  12  o'clock," 
for  "  untill."  On  page  6,  at  line  18,  "  untill  about  4"  has 
the  "  about "  left  out,  while  the  next  line  omits  the  "  our  " 
in  "  We  then  took  our  leaves." 

These  half  score  of  perfectly  palpable  and  needless  mis- 
takes, within  half  a  dozen  pages,  bring  us  to  page  7,  twenty- 
five  lines  of  which  are  occupied  with  the  "  Dear  Richard  " 
letter,  "printed  from  the  original,"  and,  as  Mr.  Ford's 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  73 

preface  promises,  with  "  the  fulness  and  accuracy  of  detail 
even  to  an  extreme,"  every  letter,  punctuation,  or  want 
of  it,  use  of  capital  letters,  bad  spelling,  etc.,  etc.,  to  meet 
"  the  requirements  of  the  modern  historical  method."  The 
"  industry  and  accuracy  "  of  "  my  copyist,"  in  this  letter 
of  twenty-five  lines,  must  have  gone  on  a  vacation,  as  the 
copy  printed  by  Mr.  Ford  contains  eighty-five  variations 
from  the  perfectly  legible  and  plain  original.  It  is  in  fact 
from  some  previously  printed  copy,  which  a  corrector  had 
altered  throughout,  and  not  even  a  glance  at  the  original 
has  been  taken,  sufficient  to  detect  so  large  an  omission 
as  that  of  the  words  "  like  a  Negro,"  in  the  close  of  the 
letter.  The  original  has,  "  I  have  never  had  my  Cloths 
of  but  lay  and  sleep  in  them  Hke  a  Negro  except  the  few 
Nights  I  have  lay'n  in  Frederick  Town."  Mr.  Ford  has  it, 
"  I  have  never  had  my  clothes  ofif,  but  lay  &  sleep  in 
them,  except  the  few  nights  I  have  lay'n  in  Frederic  Town." 
An  editor  and  copyist  who  can't  together  see  a  Negro  so 
conspicuously  manifest  will  have  to  be  content  with  being 
a  mutual  admiration  society  of  two.  The  other  chief  errors 
of  Mr.  Ford's  copy  of  this  letter  are  hardly  less  excusable. 
The  original  says,  "  Dubbleloon,"  "  Birth  nearest  the  fire," 
"  Parcel  of  Doggs  or  Catts,"  "  Little  Hay  Straw  Fodder 
or  bairskin,"  but  Mr.  Ford  has  "  doubloon,"  "  berth,"  "  par- 
cel of  dogs  and  cats,"  and  "  little  hay,  straw,  fodder,  or 
bearskin,"  quite  as  if  young  Master  Washington  had  not 
only  written  more  correctly  than  Lord  Bacon  and  Shakes- 
peare, but  as  correctly  as  we  do  now. 

Mr.  Ford  next  gives  the  "  Dear  Friend  Robin  "  letter ; 
twenty-six  lines  of  text,  which  again  is  not  printed  from 
the  original,  but  from  a  copy  altered  from  that.  Pretend- 
ing that  it  is  accurately  copied,  Mr.  Ford  yet  gives  it  to 
us   with    fifty-one    variations    from    the    original.     Thus 


74  WASHINGTON. 

"  makes  me  endeavour  "  is  read  "  I  make  one  endeavor;  " 
and  although  most  of  the  other  words  are  as  in  the  orig- 
inal, the  spelling,  punctuation,  and  use  of  capitals  are  ac- 
cording to  a  corrected  copy.  A  note  to  this  letter  gives 
"A  curious  memorandum," — that  about  the  making  of  a 
coat, —  and  in  ten  lines  there  are  fifty-one  variations  from 
the  original.  Mr.  Ford  says  of  this  memorandum  that  it, 
"judging  from  the  hand-writing,  belongs  to  this  period." 
He  does  not  tell  us  whether  his  accurate  copyist  concurs 
in  this  'Sapient  judgment.  The  simple  fact  is  that  the 
memorandum  occurs  as  one  item  among  the  others  in  this 
early  little  book,  like  a  brick  laid  into  a  wall,  and  there  is 
not  the  smallest  chance  to  judge  about  it,  it  so  manifestly 
goes  with  the  other  items.  And  this  is  but  one  sHght 
illustration  of  the  false  pretenses  made  by  Mr.  Ford  as 
an  editor,  collector,  annotator,  etc.  He  says  of  the  "  Jour- 
nal," as  we  have  seen :  "  This  is  the  earliest  manuscript 
that  /  have  found,''  These  three  last  words  are  pure  false 
pretense.  The  manuscript  in  question,  and  the  other  early 
manuscripts,  were  all  ''found"  before  Mr.  Ford's  time 
and  labors.  They  repose  in  the  Hbrary  of  the  Department 
of  State,  and  Mr.  Ford  has  the  leave  to  see  them,  which  any 
one  can  have.  Not  only  has  Mr.  Ford  not  looked  up  any 
of  the  material  to  which  he  thus  refers,  but  he  has  not 
looked  at  it  enough  to  reproduce  it  correctly.  The  manu- 
script book  which  he  pretends  to  have  "  found,"  with  its 
double  character  (i)  a  Journal  of  Surveys,  followed  by 
other  papers,  reading  from  the  front  of  the  book  through 
about  sixty  pages,  and  (2)  a  "  Journal  of  my  Journey  over 
the  Mountains,"  reading  from  the  back  end  of  the  book 
through  twenty-four  pages,  Mr.  Ford  sees  in  only  its  sec- 
ond character,  and  copying  this  he  puts  to  it,  not  its  own 
title,  but  that  belonging  to  the  book  in  its.  other  character. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  75 

These  experiences  in  the  wilderness  essentially  served 
important  purposes  which  were  to  be  accomplished  in  the 
future  ordering  of  events,  and  in  which  America  and 
humanity  at  large  were  interested. 

They  established  his  reputation  as  a  young  man  of 
energy,  diligence,  ability,  and  integrity.  He  might  have 
lingered,  without  reproach,  among  the  pleasures  of  Mount 
Vernon  and  of  Belvoir ;  for  his  society  ever  was  the  delight 
of  his  brother  Lawrence,  and  at  the  hospitable  mansion  and 
in  the  elegant  society  of  the  Fairfaxes  he  would  always  have 
received  a  hearty  welcome.  But  it  was  his  manly  choice 
faithfully  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  his  chosen  occupation  as  a 
land  surveyor,  although  required  by  them  to  brave  the  dan- 
gers and  endure  the  hardships  and  privations  of  life  in 
the  woods.  None  that  knew  him  needed  any  further  proofs 
of  his  title  to  their  esteem  and  confidence. 

Another  important  result  of  his  forest  discipline  was  the 
development  of  his  naturally  vigorous  frame.  He  was  re- 
quired to  ride  for  days  together  on  horseback  through  wild 
regions,  or  to  traverse  them  afoot,  continually  encounter- 
ing difficulties  which  put  to  a  severe  test  his  agility  and 
strength,  and  thus  so  exercised  his  physical  powers  that 
while  he  was  yet  in  youth  he  had  the  aspect,  the  port,  and 
the  muscle  of  maturity. 

The  nature  of  his  occupation  contributed  also  to  his 
ability,  when  casting  his  eye  over  an  extensive  region  to 
form  at  a  glance  a  correct  estimate  of  distances,  which  to 
any  one  who  was  inexpert  seemed  marvelous.  And  he 
learned  by  long  practice  to  discover  in  the  dim  disance  and 
identify  objects  which  no  common  eye  could  see. 

In  his  forest  experience  he  made  yet  another  valuable 
acquisition.  This  was  his  familiar  acquaintance  with  the 
habits  and  opinions  of  backwoodsmen.  He  met  them  in 
their  rambles,  took  part  with  them  in  their  hunting  excur- 


76  WASHINGTON. 

sions,  camped  with  them  in  the  woods,  sat  with  them  in 
their  log  cabins,  partook  of  their  coarse  fare,  and  formed 
from  his  own  observation  a  just  estimate  of  their  true  char- 
acter, so  that  afterward  when  they  became  soldiers  of  his 
armies  he  thoroughly  understood  the  secret  of  commanding 
and  directing  their  best  energies. 

And  he  enjoyed  in  his  surveying  expeditions  and  in  his 
intercourse  with  borderers  and  red  men,  very  favorable 
opportunities  for  gaining  a  knowledge  of  Indian  life  in  its 
best  and  its  worst  phases.  He  heard  from  the  lips  of  the 
backwoodsman,  his  spirit-stirring  tales  of  the  savage 
cruelties  and  of  the  cunning  and  the  treachery  which  made 
the  word  Indian  a  signal  of  alarm.  He  ascertained  also 
by  means  of  his  personal  intercourse  with  these  wild  men, 
that  there  were  combined  with  their  worst  traits  some  of 
a  far  less  repugnant  nature.  A  knowledge  of  their  social 
habits,  their  opinions,  their  prejudices,  predilections,  and 
superstitions,  their  artifices  in  war,  and  the  best  modes 
of  conciliating  and  controlling  or  of  contending  with  and 
overpowering  them,  he  acquired  in  the  very  regions  where 
they  made  their  haunts. 

There  was  moreover  an  important  mental  influence  de- 
rived from  his  frequenting  primeval  forests  and  moving 
among  the  sights  and  sounds  associated  with  them.  Such 
sights  and  sounds  do  not  affect  only  the  poetic  and  im- 
aginative, they  find  a  ready  response  in  every  ingenuous 
and  susceptible  mind.  The  very  silence  of  the  deep  woods 
is  significant,  and  when  night  shuts  out  all  that  the  eye 
finds  in  them  that  is  of  interest,  their  solemn  gloom  broken 
only  by  the  glare  of  the  camp-fire  or  by  the  light  of  the 
pale  moon  and  twinkling  stars,  awakens  thoughts  and 
emotions  which  produce  a  deep  and  durable  impression  on 
the  soul.  A  familiarity  with  nature,  especially  in  the  wild 
grandeur  of  her  mountain  and  forest   scenery   ever  has 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  77 

exerted  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  human  mind  and 
heart. 

While  making  his  surveys  Washington  was  frequently 
led  to  visit  Greenway  Court,  and  he  would  sometimes  tarry 
there  for  a  few  days.  On  these  occasions  he  indulged 
with  his  lordship  in  his  favorite  field  sports,  availed  him- 
self of  the  rare  advantages  afforded  by  his  well-selected 
library,  and  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  his  edifying  and  instruc- 
tive conversation.  It  appears  from  the  young  surveyor's 
diary  and  it  is  a  significant  record,  that  instead  of  light 
literature,  he  now  devoted  his  hours  for  reading  chiefly  to 
Addison's  Spectator  and  the  History  of  England. 

During  occasional  intermissions  of  severe  duty,  he  re- 
sorted either  to  his  loved  home  at  his  mother's,  or  to  the 
delightful  residence  of  his  brother  Lawrence,  at  Mount 
Vernon.  His  attachment  to  this  brother  was  always 
ardent  and  devoted.  Lawrence  was  not  only  an  accom- 
plished gentleman,  possessed  of  those  qualities  which  com- 
mand deference,  excite  regard,  and  kindle  affection,  but 
he  had  the  practical  experience  of  a  soldier's  life;  and,  as 
an  active  member  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses, 
he  was  familiarly  acquainted  with  political  affairs.  From 
intercourse  with  him,  his  brother  George  continued  to 
gather  stores  of  valuable  knowledge. 

His  employment  as  a  surveyor  kept  him  busily,  use- 
fully, and  profitably  occupied.  And  he  relied  upon  this 
employment  for  his  support,  not  anticipating  by  loans  the 
revenues  to  be  derived  from  his  patrimonial  inheritance. 

His  father  had  bequeathed  to  the  eldest  son,  Lawrence, 
the  estate  afterward  called  Mount  Vernon.  To  Augustine, 
the  second  son  of  his  first  wife,  he  had  given  the  old 
homestead  in  Westmoreland  county.  And  George,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one,  was  to  inherit  the  house  and  lands  in 
Suffolk  county.     As  yet  however  he  derived  no  benefit 


78  WASHINGTON. 

from  this  landed  property.  But  his  industry  and  diligence 
in  his  laborious  occupation  supplied  him  with  abundant 
pecuniary  means.  His  habits  of  life  were  simple  and  eco- 
nomical; he  indulged  in  no  gay  and  expensive  pleasures; 
in  early  youth  a  good  boy,  he  had  now  become  an  indus- 
trious young  man,  and  he  was  maturing  his  discipline  for 
a  step  yet  higher. 

When,  in  due  course  of  time,  he  received  his  inheritance, 
unimpaired  and  unencumbered,  and  in  addition  to  it  the 
large  estate  of  Mount  Vernon,  bequeathed  to  him  by  his 
brother  Lawrence,  and  also  of  valuable  lands  in  Berkeley 
county,  he  was  intellectually  and  morally  qualified  to  enter 
upon  the  duties,  fulfil  the  obligations,  and  dispense  the 
hospitalities  and  bounties  of  an  opulent  planter;  intelli- 
gent, honorable,  and  every  way  exemplary. 

[Washington  did  not  receive  the  full  property  interest 
of  Mount  Vernon  until  the  life  interest  in  it  of  the  widow 
of  Lawrence  Washington  had  expired.  He  made  an  ar- 
rangement for  possession  under  which  he  paid  to  her  and 
her  second  husband  an  annual  sum  sufficient  to  materially 
draw  upon  his  resources. 

Lodge  says  of  the  early  developments  of  character  in 
Washington  and  of  the  means  by  which  they  were  brought 
about : 

"While  Washington  was  working  his  way  through  the 
learning  purveyed  by  Mr.  Williams,  he  was  also  receiving 
another  education,  of  a  much  broader  and  better  sort, 
from  the  men  and  women  among  whom  he  found  himself, 
and  with  whom  he  made  friends.  Chief  among  them  was 
his  eldest  brother,  Lawrence,  fourteen  years  his  senior, 
who  had  been  educated  in  England,  had  fought  with  Ver- 
non at  Carthagena,  and  had  then  returned  to  Virginia,  to 
be  to  him  a  generous  father  and  a  loving  frienB.  As  the 
head  of  the  family,  Lawrence  Washington  had  received 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  79 

the  lion's  share  of  the  property,  including  the  estate  at 
Hunting  Creek,  on  the  Potomac,  which  he  christened 
Mount  Vernon,  after  his  admiral,  and  where  he  settled 
down  and  built  him  a  goodly  house.  To  this  pleasant  spot 
George  Washington  journeyed  often  in  vacation  time,  and 
there  he  came  to  live  and  further  pursue  his  studies,  after 
leaving  school  in  the  autumn  of  1747. 

"  Lawrence  Washington  had  married  the  daughter  of 
William  Fairfax,  the  proprietor  of  Belvoir,  a  neighboring 
plantation,  and  the  agent  for  the  vast  estates  held  by  his 
family  in  Virginia.  George  Fairfax,  Mrs.  Washington's 
brother,  had  married  a  Miss  Carey,  and  thus  two  large 
and  agreeable  family  connections  were  thrown  open  to  the 
young  surveyor  when  he  emerged  from  school.  The  chief 
figure,  however,  in  that  pleasant  winter  of  1747-48,  so  far 
as  an  influence  upon  the  character  of  Washington  is  con- 
cerned, was  the  head  of  the  family  into  which  Lawrence 
Washington  Had  married.  Thomas,  Lord  Fairfax,  then 
sixty  years  of  age,  had  come  to  Virginia  to  live  upon  and 
look  after  the  kingdom  which  he  had  inherited  in  the  wilder- 
ness. He  came  of  a  noble  and  distinguished  race.  Grad- 
uating at  Oxford  with  credit,  he  served  in  the  army,  dab- 
bled in  literature,  had  his  fling  in  the  London  world,  and 
was  jilted  by  a  beauty  who  preferred  a  duke,  and  gave  her 
faithful  but  less  titled  lover  an  apparently  incurable  wound. 
His  life  having  been  thus  early  twisted  and  set  awry.  Lord 
Fairfax,  when  well  past  his  prime,  had  determined  finally 
to  come  to  Virginia,  bury  himself 'in  the  forests,  and  look 
after  the  almost  limitless  possessions  beyond  the  Blue 
Ridge,  which  he  had  inherited  from  his  maternal  grand- 
father. Lord  Culpeper,  of  unsavory  Restoration  memory. 
It  was  a  piece  of  great  good  fortune  which  threw  in  Wash- 
ington's path  this  accomplished  gentleman,  familiar  with 
courts  and  camps,  disappointed,  but  not  morose,  disillu- 


80  WASHINGTON. 

sioned,  but  still  kindly  and  generous.  From  him  the  boy 
could  gain  that  knowledge  of  men  and  manners  which  no 
school  can  give,  and  which  is  as  important  in  its  way  as 
any  that  a  teacher  can  impart. 

"  Lord  Fairfax  and  Washington  became  fast  friends. 
They  hunted  the  fox  together,  and  hunted  him  hard.  They 
engaged  in  all  the  rough  sports  and  perilous  excitements 
that  Virginia  winter  life  could  afford,  and  the  boy's  bold 
and  skilful  riding,  his  love  of  sports,  and  his  fine  temper, 
commended  him  to  the  warm  and  affectionate  interest  of 
the  old  nobleman.  Other  qualities,  too,  the  experienced 
man  of  the  world  saw  in  his  young  companion,  a  high  and 
persistent  courage,  robust  and  calm  sense,  and,  above  all, 
unusual  force  of  will  and  character.  Washington  im- 
pressed profoundly  everybody  with  whom  he  was  brought 
into  personal  contact,  a  fact  which  is  one  of  the  most 
marked  features  of  his  character  and  career,  and  one  which 
deserves  study  more  than  almost  any  other.  Lord  Fair- 
fax was  no  exception  to  the  rule.  He  saw  in  Washington 
not  simply  a  promising,  brave,  open-hearted  boy,  diligent 
in  practicing  his  profession,  and  whom  he  was  anxious  to 
help,  but  something  more ;  something  which  so  impressed 
him  that  he  confided  to  this  lad  a  task  which,  according 
to  its  performance,  would  affect  both  his  fortune  and  his 
peace.  In  a  word,  he  trusted  Washington,  and  told  him, 
as  the  spring  of  1748  was  opening,  to  go  forth  and  survey 
the  vast  Fairfax  estates  beyond  the  Ridge,  define  their 
boundaries,  and  save  them  from  future  litigation.  With 
this  commission  from  Lord  Fairfax,  Washington  entered 
on  the  first  period  of  his  career.  He  passed  it  on  the  fron- 
tier, fighting  nature,  the  Indians,  and  the  French.  He 
went  in  a  schoolboy;  he  came  out  the  first  soldier  in  the 
Colonies  and  one  of  the  leading  men  of  Virginia.  Let  us 
pause  a  moment  and  look  at  him  as  he  stands  on  the 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  81 

threshold  of  this  momentous  period,  rightly  called  mo- 
mentous because  it  was  the  formative  period  in  the  life  of 
such  a  man. 

"  He  had  just  passed  his  sixteenth  birthday.  He  was 
tall  and  muscular,  approaching  the  stature  of  more  than 
six  feet  which  he  afterward  attained.  He  was  not  yet 
filled  out  to  manly  proportions,  but  was  rather  spare,  after 
the  fashion  of  youth.  He  had  a  well-shaped,  active  figure, 
symmetrical  except  for  the  unusual  length  of  the  arms, 
indicating  uncommon  strength.  His  light  brown  hair  was 
drawn  back  from  a  broad  forehead,  and  grayish-blue  eyes 
looked  happily,  and  perhaps  a  trifle  soberly,  on  the  pleas- 
ant Virginia  world  about  him.  The  face  was  open  and 
manly,  with  a  square,  massive  jaw,  and  a  general  expres- 
sion of  calmness  and  strength.  "  Fair  and  florid,"  big 
and  strong,  he  was,  take  him  for  all  in  all,  as  fine  a  speci- 
men of  his  race  as  could  be  found  in  the  EngHsh  Colonies. 

"  Let  us  look  a  little  closer  through  the  keen  eyes  of  one 
who  studied  many  faces  to  good  purpose.  The  great 
painter  of  portraits,  Gilbert  Stuart,  tells  us  of  Washing- 
ton that  he  never  saw  in  any  man  such  large  eye-sockets, 
or  such  a  breadth  of  nose  and  forehead  between  the  eyes, 
and  that  he  read  there  the  evidence  of  the  strongest  pas- 
sions possible  to  human  nature.  John  Bernard,  the  actor, 
a  good  observer,  too,  saw  in  Washington's  face,  in  1797, 
the  signs  of  an  habitual  conflict  and  mastery  of  passions, 
witnessed  by  the  compressed  mouth  and  deeply  indented 
brow.  The  problem  had  been  solved  then;  but  in  1748, 
passion  and  will  alike  slumbered,  and  no  man  could  tell 
which  would  prevail,  or  whether  they  would  work  together 
to  great  purpose  or  go  jarring  on  to  nothingness.  He 
rises  up  to  us  out  of  the  past  in  that  early  springtime  a 
fine,  handsome,  athletic  boy,  beloved  by  those  about  him, 
who  found  him  a  charming  companion  and  did  not  guess 
6 


82  WASHINGTON. 

that  he  might  be  a  terribly  dangerous  foe.  He  rises  up 
instinct  with  Hfe  and  strength,  a  being  capable,  as  we 
know,  of  great  things,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  with  hot 
blood  pulsing  in  his  veins  and  beating  in  his  heart,  with 
violent  passions  and  relentless  will  still  undeveloped,  and 
no  one  in  all  that  jolly,  generous  Virginian  society  even 
dimly  dreamed  what  that  development  would  be,  or  what 
it  would  mean  to  the  world. 

"  Lord  Fairfax  was  so  much  pleased  by  the  report  that 
he  moved  across  the  Blue  Ridge,  built  a  hunting  lodge 
preparatory  to  something  more  splendid  which  never  came 
to  pass,  and  laid  out  a  noble  manor,  to  which  he  gave  the 
name  of  Greenway  Court.  He  also  procured  for  Wash- 
ington an  appointment  as  a  public  surveyor,  which  con- 
ferred authority  on  his  surveys  and  provided  him  with 
regular  work.  Thus  started,  Washington  toiled  at  fiis 
profession  for  three  years,  living  and  working  as  he  did 
on  his  first  expedition.  .  .  .  And  while  he  worked  and 
earned  he  kept  an  observant  eye  upon  the  wilderness,  and 
bought  up  when  he  could  the  best  land  for  himself  and 
his  family,  laying  the  foundations  of  the  great  landed 
estate  of  which  he  died  possessed. 

"  There  was  also  a  lighter  and  pleasanter  side  to  this 
hard-working  existence,  which  was  quite  as  useful  and 
more  attractive  than  toiling  in  the  woods  and  mountains. 
The  young  surveyor  passed  much  of  his  time  at  Green- 
way  Court,  hunting  the  fox  and  rejoicing  in  all  field  sports 
which  held  high  place  in  that  kingdom,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  profited  much  in  graver  fashion  by  his  friendship 
with  such  a  man  as  Lord  Fairfax.  There,  too,  he  had  a 
chance  at  a  library,  and  his  diaries  show  that  he  read  care- 
fully the  history  of  England  and  the  essays  of  the  '  Spec- 
tator.' Neither  in  early  days  nor  at  any  other  time  was 
he  a  student,  for  he  had  few  opportunities,  and  his  life  from 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  83 

the  beginning  was  out  of  doors  and  among  men.  But  the 
idea  sometimes  put  forward  that  Washington  cared  noth- 
ing for  reading  or  for  books  is  an  idle  one.  He  read  at 
Greenway  Court  and  everywhere  else  when  he  had  a 
chance,  and  he  read  well  and  to  some  purpose,  studying 
men  and  events  in  books  as  he  did  in  the  world,  and  though 
he  never  talked  of  his  reading,  preserving  silence  on  that 
as  on  other  things  concerning  himself,  no  one  ever  was 
able  to  record  an  instance  in  which  he  showed  himself 
ignorant  of  history  or  of  literature.  He  was  never  a 
learned  man,  but  so  far  as  his  own  language  could  carry 
him  he  was  an  educated  one.  Thus  while  he  developed 
the  sterner  qualities  by  hard  work  and  a  rough  life,  he  did 
not  bring  back  the  coarse  habits  of  the  backwoods  and  the 
camp-fire,  but  was  able  to  refine  his  manners  and  improve 
his  mind  in  the  excellent  society  and  under  the  hospitable 
roof  of  Lord  Fairfax." 

Lodge's  assumption  that  "  another  education  "  than  that 
of  his  four  years'  schooling  played  a  part  of  importance 
in  the  preparation  of  Washington  for  his  career  is  as  just 
as  it  is  important ;  and  it  is  correct  to  make  great  account 
of  the  brotherly  tutorship  of  Lawrence,  the  fine  quality 
and  large  variety  of  the  influences  represented  by  the  elder 
William  Fairfax  and  his  family  at  Belvoir ;  and  the  weight 
of  services  rendered  by  Lord  Fairfax;  but  the  statement 
that  the  latter,  out  of  special  trust,  commissioned  him,  in 
the  spring  of  1748,  "to  go  forth  and  survey  the  vast  Fair- 
fax estates,  define  their  boundaries,  and  save  them  from 
future  litigation,"  is  a  deplorable  example  of  ignorance 
and  credulity  setting  the  imagination  at  work  upon  an 
utterly  baseless  tradition.  Lord  Fairfax  had  already  put 
his  trust  in  plain  "  Mr.  Genn,  the  Surveyor,"  as  young 
Washington's  own  report  calls  him,  with  four  other  per- 
sons required,  with  the  surveyor,  to  make  a  legal  survey 


84  WASHINGTON. 

party,  and  by  their  five  signatures  authentic  a  survey. 
The  ^part  played  by  Washington  was  that  of  going  along 
with  the  surveying  party,  and  giving  such  assistance  as 
the  circumstances  permitted,  which  cannot  have  been 
much  more  than  general  oversight  and  some  minor  ser- 
vice, because  the  law  required  the  essential  running  of 
lines  and  making  of  measurements  to  be  done  by  the 
legally  qualified  surveyor's  men.  Washington  tells  how 
a  survey,  and  all  surveys,  made  for  Lord  Fairfax,  must  be 
reported,  and  the  five  names  required  to  be  signed  do  not 
include  his  own. 

We  know,  moreover,  from  Washington's  own  account, 
that  the  surveys  executed  in  the  spring  of  1748  amounted 
to  only  a  laying  off  of  special  lots,  only  one  large  one  in 
the  first  place  reached,  and  only  a  few  in  each  of  two  other 
places,  while  the  most  considerable  work  lasted  only  seven 
days  and  covered  the  survey  of  only  a  comparatively  small 
fragment  of  the  vast  Fairfax  estate.  Not  only  was  there 
no  trust  in  Washington  for  the  month's  job  of  travel  and 
surveying,  but  there  was  no  such  task  contemplated  as  a 
general  "  survey  of  the  vast  Fairfax  estates ; "  and  if  there 
had  been  there  could  not  possibly  have  been  any  thought 
of  giving  the  task  to  young  Washington,  a  mere  young 
gentleman  amateur,  whose  work,  however  well  done, 
would  have  had  no  legal  value;  nor  could  a  large  corps 
of  surveyors  have  reported  in  thirty-two  days,  as  Lodge 
says  that  Washington  did,  in  a  way  to  give  Lord  Fairfax 
satisfaction  over  an  executed  survey  of  his  millions  of 
acres  of  Virginia  valleys  and  mountain  wilderness. 

Lodge  most  unfortunately  appears  to  say  that  Wash- 
ington went  into  the  surveying  business  a  schoolboy  and 
came  out  the  first  soldier  in  the  Colonies.  This,  however, 
is  mere  unlucky  carelessness.  He  means  to  count  the 
surveying  years  as  the  threshold  of  the  first  period  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  85 

about  ten  years,  but  reference  to  any  such  first  period  is 
misleading.  That  first  period  began  after  the  surveying 
years,  which  were  years  of  preparation  far  more  than  they 
were  of  employment,  and  of  preparation  with  which  the 
surveying  work,  which  was  the  merest  occasional  bread 
and  butter  work,  had  very  little  to  do.  The  statement  that 
Lord  Fairfax  procured  for  Washington  an  appointment 
as  a  public  surveyor,  in  consequence  of  the  pleasure  given 
him  by  the  surveys  made  in  March-April,  1748,  by  Wash- 
ington is  wholly  an  error.  "  Mr.  Genn,  the  surveyor," 
had  made  the  surveys,  and  the  whole  was  too  small  and 
commonplace  a  matter  to  call  for  special  recognition.  It 
was  a  year  and  three  months  later  that  Washington  got, 
not  an  appointment  to  the  office,  but  a  license,  such  as 
various  persons  held,  to  act  as  a  legally  qualified  surveyor. 
As  Washington  was  at  the  date  of  getting  his  license  seven- 
teen years  and  five  months  old,  he  did  not  from  that  date 
"  toil  at  his  profession  for  three  years."  Moreover,  there 
was  no  "  profession  "  in  the  case.  Lord  Fairfax  himself 
held  a  license,  which  was  no  more  than  a  permit  to  direct 
the  running  of  lines  and  measuring  of  lands,  and  authenti- 
cate the  record  by  an  official  signature.  What  Lodge 
himself  says  of  how  Washington  passed  his  time,  shows 
very  plainly  that  he  was  not  primarily  a  working  surveyor, 
and  that  he  did  not  "  toil  for  three  years,  living  and  work- 
ing as  he  did  on  his  first  expedition."  One  other  such 
expedition  he  probably  took  part  in,  in  the  autumn  of 
1749,  in  surveying  lands  for  the  Ohio  Company,  and  quite 
likely  he  was  himself  "  the  surveyor "  in  this  case,  and 
was  out  a  longer  time  than  one  the  expedition  of  March- 
April,  1748. 

Lodge's  attempt  to  throw  light  on  Washington's  char- 
acter at  his  entrance  upon  his  seventeenth  year  would  have 
been  to  the  purpose  if  he  had  stopped  with  the  very  just 


86  WASHINGTON. 

sketch  of  what  Washington  as  a  youth  of  sixteen  appeared 
to  be;  but  the  references  to  Stuart  and  to  Bernard  could 
not  be  more  wide  of  the  mark.  The  Bernard  incident 
brings  out  most  deHghtfully  the  charm  and  beauty  of 
Washington's  humanism,  and  the  single  touch  about  signs 
of  an  habitual  conflict  and  mastery  of  passions  was  a  de- 
plorably false,  as  it  was  a  scandalously  venturesome,  guess.^ 
All  that  Bernard  saw,  or  could  see,  were  indications  of  ex- 
treme sensibility,  and  it  needed  knowledge  far  beyond 
Bernard's  to  tell  in  what  form  that  depth  of  feeHng  would 
come  out  in  conduct  and  character.  The  whole  career 
of  Washington  gives  the  lie  to  no  matter  whose  charge 
that  there  were  any  passions  in  his  nature  calculated  to 
lower  his  character  or  cause  a  moment  of  blameworthy 
conduct.  Extreme  outburst  of  feeling  was  no  more  than 
a  rare  possibility,  and  never  then  of  feeling  not  profoundly 
just  and  perfectly  natural  to  a  noble  nature.  As  to  what 
Stuart  read,  it  was  as  ignorant  and  baseless  a  reading  as 
could  well  be  made.  The  student  who  can  quote  Stuart 
to  any  such  purpose  as  Lodge  does  loses  through  his  eye 
for  an  anecdote  Andes  and  Alps  of  evidence,  attestations 
filling  both  America  and  Europe,  to  the  almost  divine 
perfection  of  the  temper  of  Washington. 

The  assumption  under  which  Lodge  speaks  of  Wash- 
ington in  his  youth  as  "  a  being  capable  of  great  things, 
whether  for  good  or  evil,  with  hot  blood  pulsing  in  his 
veins  and  beating  in  his  heart,  with  violent  passions  and 
relentless  will  still  undeveloped,"  while  "  no  one  even 
dimly  dreamed  what  that  development  would  be,"  is  con- 
trary absolutely  to  all  that  the  latest  science  can  tell  us 
and  all  that  the  most  certain  history  can  testify.  No  fact 
of  knowledge  carries  greater  significance  or  bears  a  more 
sure  character  than  the  origin  from  birth  of  great  genius, 
of  remarkable  powers,  of  all  the  great  things,  whether  for 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  87 

good  or  evil,  of  the  human  being;  and  no  fact  of  the  story 
of  Washington  means  more  for  his  history  or  rests  on 
ampler  testimony  than  the  possession  by  him  from  his 
birth  of  the  self-control,  the  balance  of  character,  the  large 
and  genial  humanism  which  were  the  glory  of  his  meridian. 
There  was  no  impression  from  his  later  life  in  what  Gen- 
eral Braddock  saw  in  Washington  on  the  threshold  of  his 
great  career,  and  set  down  as  follows,  shortly  before  that 
bloody  battle  in  which  he  fell: 

"  Is  Mr.  Washington  among  your  acquaintances  ?  If 
not,  I  recommend  you  to  embrace  the  first  opportunity  to 
form  his  friendship.  He  is  about  twenty-three  years  of 
age;  with  a  countenance  both  mild  and  pleasant,  prom- 
ising both  wit  and  judgment.  He  is  of  comely  and  digni- 
fied demeanor,  at  the  same  time  displays  much  self-reliance 
and  decision.  He  strikes  me  as  being  a  young  man  of 
extraordinary  and  exalted  character,  and  is  destined  to 
make  no  inconsiderable  figure  in  our  country." 

The  "hot  blood,"  "violent  passions,"  and  "relentless 
will "  might  have  come  through  inheritance  from  one 
parent,  but  if  they  had  so  come  they  would  have  persisted 
through  life;  and  the  evidence  is  complete  that  neither 
the  later  years  nor  the  earlier  knew  anything  of  the  kind. 
Lodge  himself  says  of  Washington  as  Braddock  saw  him : 

"  He  also  made  warm  friends  with  the  English  officers, 
and  was  treated  with  consideration  by  his  commander. 
The  universal  practice  of  all  Englishmen  was  to  behave 
contemptuously  to  the  colonists,  but  there  was  something 
about  Washington  which  made  this  impossible.  They  all 
treated  him  with  the  utmost  courtesy,  vaguely  conscious 
that  beneath  the  pleasant,  quiet  manner  there  was  a 
strength  of  character  and  ability  such  as  is  rarely  found, 
and  that  this  was  a  man  whom  it  was  unsafe  to  aflfront. 
There  is  no  stronger  instance  of  Washington's  power  of 


88  WASHINGTON. 

impressing  himself  upon  others  than  that  he  commanded 
now  the  respect  and  affection  of  his  general,  who  was  the 
last  man  to  be  easily  or  favorably  affected  by  a  young  pro- 
vincial officer." 

It  is  entirely  without  warrant,  and  with  the  worst  pos- 
sible discrimination,  that  Lodge  adds  to  his  thoroughly 
fine  indication  of  the  rare  gentleman  that  Washington  was 
seen  to  be,  that  he  also  appeared  to  be  "  a  man  whom  it 
was  unsafe  to  affront."  Braddock  and  his  companions 
could  not  possibly  have  thought  that  any  course  they 
chose  to  take  might  prove  "unsafe,"  and  the  evidence 
shows  beyond  question  that  they  saw  only  what  Braddock 
expressed.] 


CHAPTER  IV. 

HIS  VOYAGE  TO  BARBADOES. 

1751-1752. 

THE  health  of  Lawrence  Washington  awakened  at 
this  time  saddening  apprehensions.  A  deeply- 
seated  lung  affection,  from  which  he  long  suffered, 
had  induced  him  to  take  a  voyage  to  England.  This  gave 
no  rehef.  He  then  resorted,  but  in  vain,  to  the  Bath 
Springs  of  Virginia.  And  now,  at  the  instance  of  his  medi- 
cal advisers,  he  proposed  to  sail  for  Barbadoes,  which  was 
deemed  at  that  time  the  healthiest  island  in  the  West  In- 
dian archipelago. 

He  sailed  September  28  (1751),  accompanied  by  his 
brother  George,  and  reached  the  island  on  the  third  day 
of  November.  But  the  experiment  of  a  few  weeks'  resi- 
dence proved  utterly  unavailing.  It  was  determined  there- 
fore to  try  the  delightful  cHmate  of  the  Bermudas  (Feb- 
ruary, 1752.)  George  was  in  the  mean  time  to  repair  to 
Virginia,  and  to  return  with  Lawrence's  wife,  that  she 
might  join  her  husband  in  the  spring. 

Lawrence  accordingly  sailed  to  the  Bermudas  (March, 
1752).  Before  the  lapse  of  many  days  after  his  arrival  how- 
ever he  wrote  discouragingly :  "  I  have  now  got  to  my 
last  refuge,  where  I  must  receive  my  final  sentence.  If  I 
grow  worse,  I  shall  hurry  home  to  my  grave."  Soon  con- 
vinced that  he  should  no  longer  listen  to  the  flattery  of 

(80) 


90  WASHINGTON. 

hope,  he  did  not  tarry  at  the  Bermudas  for  his  wife  and 
brother,  but  he  informed  them  of  his  intention  to  return 
home  without  delay.  This  he  happily  accomplished.  But 
it  was  only  to  linger  for  a  little  while,  and  then  (July  26, 
1752),  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four  years  to  be  removed 
by  death  from  his  wife  and  his  only  child,  an  infant 
daughter. 

To  this  daughter  he  bequeathed  Mount  Vernon.  But 
she  died  at  an  early  age,  and  the  estate,  according  to 
provisions  of  the  bequest  in  that  event,  descended  to  the 
favorite  brother,  George.  Their  father,  Augustine  Wash- 
ington, had  expressed  a  desire  in  his  will,  that  should  Law- 
rence die  without  issue,  George  might  inherit  this  estate. 
Such  a  parental  preference  was  calculated  to  throw  around 
it  a  sacred  interest.  And  it  thus  became  forever  associated 
with  the  august  name  of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  It  was 
his  happy  home,  his  calm  retreat  from  life's  cares  and  trials, 
and  his  place  of  sepulture. 

While  at  Barbadoes  with  his  brother  he  contracted  the 
small-pox,  from  which  he  suffered  severely.  He  bore  with 
him  through  life,  some  of  the  familiar  marks  usually  left 
by  that  disease.  But  his  voyage  to  the  island,  his  short 
residence  there,  and  his  voyage  home  left  far  more  pleasing 
reminiscences. 

In  the  exercise,  both  of  his  habitual  intelHgent  observa- 
tion of  men  and  things  and  of  his  characteristic  diligence 
and  industry,  he  kept  a  journal  in  which  he  entered,  while 
at  sea,  a  daily  copy  of  the  ship's  log-book  together  with  his 
own  remarks;  and,  while  on  land,  a  brief  notice  of  every 
thing  that  arrested  his  attention. 

At  Barbadoes  he  took  notes  of  the  state  of  civil  and 
military  affairs;   of  agriculture,  commerce,  and  social  life; 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  91 

and  many  of  his  observations  are  indicative  of  qualities 
and  attainments  rarely  to  be  met  with  in  a  young  man  of 
but  nineteen  years  of  age. 

The  following  are  among  his  records  at  the  island: 

"  November  4,  175 1.  This  morning  received  a  card  from, 
Major  Clarke,  welcoming  us  to  Barbadoes  with  an  in- 
vitation to  breakfast  and  dine  with  him.  We  went ;  myself 
with  some  reluctance  as  the  small-pox  was  in  the  family. 
We  were  received  in  the  most  kind  and  friendly  manner 
by  him.  Mrs.  Clarke  was  much  indisposed,  insomuch  that 
we  had  not  the  pleasure  of  her  company.  But  in  her  place 
officiated  Miss  Roberts,  her  niece,  and  an  agreeable  young 
lady.  After  drinking  tea  we  were  again  invited  to  Mr. 
Carter's,  and  were  desired  to  make  his  house  ours  till  we 
could  provide  lodgings  agreeable  to  our  wishes;  which 
offer  we  accepted. 

"  5th.  Early  this  morning  came  Dr.  Hilary,  an  eminent 
physician,  recommended  by  Major  Clarke,  to  pass  his 
opinion  on  my  brother's  disorder ;  which  he  did  in  a  favor- 
able light,  giving  great  assurances  that  it  was  not  so  fixed 
but  that  a  cure  might  be  effectually  made.  In  the  cool  of 
evening  we  rode  out  accompanied  by  Mr.  Carter,  to  seek 
lodgings  in  the  country  as  the  Doctor  advised;  and  we 
were  perfectly  enraptured  with  the  beautiful  prospects 
which  every  side  presented  to  our  view  —  the  fields  of  cane, 
corn,  fruit-trees,  etc.,  in  a  delightful  green.  We  returned 
without  accomplishing  our  intentions. 

"  7th.  Dined  with  Major  Clarke  and  by  him  was  intro- 
duced to  the  surveyor-general  and  the  judges,  who  likewise 
dined  there.  In  the  evening  they  complaisantly  accom- 
panied us  in  another  excursion  into  the  country  to  choose 
lodgings.     We  pitched  on  the  house  of  Captain  Croftan, 


92  WASHINGTON. 

commander  of  James's  Fort.  He  was  desired  to  come  to 
town  next  day  to  propose  terms.  We  returned  by  the  way 
of  Needham's  Fort. 

"  8th.  Came  Captain  Croftan  with  his  proposals,  which, 
though  extravagantly  dear,  my  brother  was  obliged  to  ac- 
cept. Fifteen  pounds  a  month  were  his  terms,  exclusive  of 
liquor  and  washing,  which  we  find.  In  the  evening  we 
removed  some  of  our  things  up  and  went  ourselves.  It  is 
very  pleasantly  situated  near  the  sea  and  about  a  mile  from 
town.  The  prospect  is  extensive  by  land  and  pleasant  by 
sea,  as  we  command  a  view  of  Carlyle  Bay  and  the  shipping. 

"9th.  Received  a  card  from  Ma;or  Clarke,  inviting  us 
to  dine  with  him  at  Judge  Maynard's  to-morrow.  He  had 
a  right  to  ask,  being  a  member  of  a  club  called  '  The  Beef- 
steak and  Tripe,'  instituted  by  himself. 

'^  loth.  We  were  genteelly  received  by  Judge  Maynard 
and  his  lady,  and  agreeably  entertained  by  the  company. 
They  have  a  meeting  every  Saturday  —  this  being  Judge 
Maynard's  day.  After  dinner  there  was  the  greatest  collec- 
tion of  fruits  set  on  the  table  that  I  have  yet  seen— -the 
granadilla,  sapadilla,  pomegranate,  sweet  orange,  water- 
melon, forbidden  fruit,  apples,  guavas,  etc.,  etc.  We  re- 
ceived invitations  from  every  gentleman  there.  Mr.  War- 
ren desired  Major  Clarke  to  show  us  the  way  to  his  house. 
Mr.  Hacket  insisted  on  our  coming  Saturday  next  to  his, 
it  being  his  day  to  treat  with  beefsteak  and  tripe.  But 
above  all,  the  invitation  of  Mr.  Maynard  was  most 
kind  and  friendly.  He  desired  and  even  insisted,  as 
well  as  his  lady,  on  our  coming  to  spend  some  weeks 
with  him,  and  promised  that  nothing  should  be  wanting  to 
render  our  stay  agreeable.  My  brother  promised  he  would 
accept  the  invitation  as  soon  as  he  should  be  a  little  dis- 
engaged from  the  doctors. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  93 

"  15th.  Was  treated  with  a  ticket  to  see  the  play  of 
*  George  Barnwell '  acted.  The  characters  of  Barnwell  and 
several  others  were  said  to  be  well  performed.  There  was 
music  adapted  and  regularly  conducted. 

"  17th.  Was  strongly  attacked  with  the  smallpox.  Sent 
for  Dr.  Lanahan,  whose  attendance  was  very  constant  till 
my  recovery  and  going  out  —  which  was  not  till  Thursday, 
the  twelfth  of  December. 

"  December  12th.  Went  to  town  and  called  on  Major 
Clarke's  family  who  had  kindly  visited  me  in  my  illness, 
and  contributed  all  they  could  in  sending  me  the  neces- 
saries which  the  disorder  required.  On  Monday  last  began 
the  Grand  Session;  and  this  day  was  brought  on  the  trial 
of  Colonel  C,  a  man  of  opulence  and  of  infamous  char- 
acter. He  was  brought  in  guiltless  and  saved  by  a  single 
evidence,  who  was  generally  reckoned  to  have  been 
suborned. 

"  22d.  Took  leave  of  my  brother,  Major  Clarke,  and 
others,  and  embarked  on  board  the  '  Industry  '  for  Virginia. 
Weighed  anchor  and  got  out  of  Carlyle  Bay  about  twelve 
o'clock. 

"  The  Governor  of  Barbadoes  seems  to  keep  a  proper 
state,  lives  very  retired  and  at  little  expense,  and  is  a  gen- 
tleman of  good  sense.  As  he  avoids  the  error  of  his  pre- 
decessor, he  gives  no  handle  for  complaint ;  but,  at  the  same 
time,  by  declining  much  familiarity  he  is  not  over-zealously 
beloved. 

"  There  are  several  singular  risings  in  this  island,  one 
above  another,  so  that  scarcely  any  part  is  deprived  of 
a  beautiful  prospect,  both  of  sea  and  land;  and  what  is 
contrary  to  observation  in  other  countries,  each  elevation 
is  better  than  the  next  below. 


94  WASHINGTON. 

"  There  are  many  delicious  fruits,  but  as  they  are  par- 
ticularly described  by  Mr.  Hughes  in  his  Natural  History 
of  the  island,  I  shall  say  nothing  further  than  that  the  China 
orange  is  good.  The  avagavo  pear  is  generally  much  ad- 
mired, though  none  pleases  my  taste  so  well  as  the  pine. 

"  The  earth  in  most  parts  is  extremely  rich  and  as  black 
as  our  richest  marsh-meadows.  The  common  produce  of 
the  cane  is  from  forty  to  seventy  polls  of  sugar,  each  poll 
valued  at  twenty  shillings,  out  of  which  a  third  is  deducted 
for  expenses.  Many  acres  last  year  produced  in  valiie 
from  one  hundred  and  forty  to  one  hundred  and  seventy 
pounds,  as  I  was  informed  by  credible  authority ;  though 
that  was  in  ginger,  and  a  very  extraordinary  year  for  the 
sale  of  that  article. 

"  How  wonderful  that  such  a  people  should  be  in  debt, 
and  not  be  able  to  indulge  themselves  in  all  the  luxuries 
as  well  as  necessaries  of  life !  Yet  so  it  happens.  Estates 
are  often  alienated  for  debts.  How  persons,  coming  to 
estates  of  two,  three,  or  four  hundred  acres  • —  which  are 
the  largest  —  can  want,  is  to  me  most  wonderful.  One- 
third  of  their  land,  or  nearly  that  portion,  is  generally  in 
train  for  harvest.  The  rest  is  in  young  cane,  Guinea-corn 
—  which  greatly  supports  their  negroes  • —  yams,  plantains, 
potatoes,  and  the  like ;  and  some  part  is  left  waste  for  stock. 
Provisions  are  generally  very  indifferent,  but  much  better 
than  the  same  quantity  of  pasturage  would  afford  in  Vir- 
ginia. The  very  grass  that  grows  among  their  corn  is  not 
lost,  but  carefully  gathered  for  provender  for  their  stock. 

"  Hospitality  and  a  genteel  behavior  are  shown  to  every 
gentleman  stranger  by  the  gentlemen  inhabitants.  Taverns 
they  have  none,  except  in  the  towns,  so  that  travelers  are 
obliged  to  go  to  private  houses.    The  people  are  said  to 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  95 

live  to  a  great  age  where  they  are  not  intemperate.  They 
are  however  very  unhappy  in  regard  to  their  officers'  fees, 
which  are  not  paid  by  any  law.  They  complain  particularly 
of  the  provost-marshal  or  sheriff-general  of  the  island, 
patented  at  home  and  rented  at  eight  hundred  pounds  a 
year.     Every  other  officer  is  exorbitant  in  his  demands. 

"  There  are  few  who  may  be  called  middHng  people. 
They  are  very  rich  or  very  poor ;  for  by  a  law  of  the  island, 
every  gentleman  is  obliged  to  keep  a  white  person  for  every 
ten  acres,  capable  of  acting  in  the  militia,  and  consequently 
the  persons  so  kept  cannot  be  very  poor.  They  are  well 
disciplined,  and  appointed  to  their  several  stations  so  that 
in  any  alarm,  every  man  may  be  at  his  post  in  less  than  two 
hours.  They  have  large  intrenchments  cast  up  wherever 
it  is  possible  to  land,  and  as  nature  has  greatly  assisted, 
the  island  may  not  improperly  be  said  to  be  one  entire  forti- 
fication." 

Among  the  illustrations  of  character  afforded  by  these 
minutes  may  be  particularly  noted,  a  lively  sense  of  gen- 
erous and  kind  hospitalities,  a  practical  interest  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  a  soldier's  observation  of  military  works,  and 
sagacious  views  of  the  moral  and  political  state  of  society. 
It  may  be  remarked  also,  that  the  journalist's  usual  calm- 
ness of  mind  is  at  once  changed  to  a  glow  of  emotion  by  the 
charms  of  natural  scenery,  so  that  he  could  indite,  "  We 
were  perfectly  enraptured  with  the  beautiful  prospects 
which  every  side  presented  to  our  view."  And  we  have 
here,  in  striking  contrast  to  this,  an  instance  of  his  char- 
acteristic slight  regard  to  personal  inconvenience  and  dis- 
comfort, by  his  mentioning  in  brief  and  general  terms  the 
fact  of  his  being  assailed  by  a  malignant  and  deforming 
contagion :     "  Was  strongly  attacked  with  the  smallpox. 


96  WASHINGTON. 

Sent  for  Dr.  Lanahan,  whose  attendance  was  very  con- 
stant till  my  recovery  and  going  out." 

In  all  this  there  are  discoverable  in  embryo,  those  very 
qualities  of  sound  good  sense  and  refined  emotion  which 
ever  after  were  prominent  in  him,  as  the  gentleman,  the 
soldier,  and  the  planter;  and  especially,  a  concern  for  the 
welfare  of  others,  and  a  reserve  in  what  related  to  self,  in 
all  his  pubHc,  social,  and  domestic  occupations,  and 
eventually,  in  his  rural  retirement  at  the  close  of  his  career. 


MARTHA    WASHINGTON. 


PART    II. 
HIS  MILITARY  APPOINTMENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WASHINGTON  A  MAJOR. 

1751-1754. 

IT  was  in  the  year  175 1  that  Washington  received  his 
first  miUtary  appointment.  This  was  occasioned  by 
preparations  in  Virginia  to  meet  an  emergency 
created  by  French  claims  to  a  great  part  of  the  British 
territories  in  America. 

At  the  time  when  Edward  III  of  England  asserted  his 
right  to  the  French  throne,  at  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  a  spirit  of  implacable  alienation  was  en- 
gendered between  the  two  rival  powers;  and,  fostered  by 
their  rancorous  altercations  and  sanguinary  wars,  it  at 
length  reached  the"  climax  of  their  settled  national 
antipathy. 

Four  hundred  years  had  now  elapsed.  During  this 
period  America  was  discovered  and  colonies  of  the  two 
nations  settled  on  its  soil.  The  British  occupied  the 
Atlantic  coast  and  the  mouths  of  rivers,  and  were  in  pos- 
session of  all  the  harbors  of  the  Continent.  The  French 
settlements  were  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
the  Mississippi. 

Had  it  been  the  policy  of  both  nations  simply  to  pro- 
7  W 


98  WASHINGTON. 

mote  the  welfare  of  their  respective  colonies,  the  time 
would  have  been  far  distant  when  national  rancor  could 
devise  the  pretext  for  a  bloody  conflict.  But  while  the 
policy  of  Great  Britain  was  to  strengthen  her  settlements 
along  the  seaboard,  that  of  France  was  to  make  acquisi- 
tions of  regions  in  the  interior,  and  eventually  to  limit 
her  rival's  western  progress  by  the  natural  cordon  of  the 
Alleghanies. 

So  unscrupulous  was  the  ambition  of  France  in  the 
adoption  of  measures  to  attain  her  object,  that,  finding 
herself  excluded  from  all  the  harbors,  it  was  seriously 
proposed  —  and  that  too  at  a  time  when  the  rival  nations 
were  in  comparative  amity  — to  make  conquest  of  the 
city  of  New  York.  It  was  unhesitatingly  admitted  that 
this  would  be  a  flagrant  outrage  of  the  law  of  nations; 
but,  said  De  Callieres,  who  recommended  the  measure  to 
his  countrymen,  it  has  the  sanction  of  necessity.*  Thus 
the  contest  was  in  reality  between  social  progress  and 
territorial  aggrandizement. 

On  three  occasions  between  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  when  the  parent  coun- 
tries were  in  arms  against  each  other,  their  respective 
colonists  in  America  were  tempted  to  engage  in  bloody 
conflict. 

James  II  of  England,  driven  from  his  throne  by  subjects 
of  strongly  Protestant  prejudices,  and  supplanted  by 
William,  Prince  of  Orange,  and  his  Queen,  Mary,  found 
a  refuge  at  the  court  of  Louis  XIV  of  France,  who 
not  only  extended  to  him  cordial  sympathy,  but  espoused 
his  cause  in  the  seven  years'  contest,  known  as 
"  King  William's  War."*     During  this  period  the  tragic 

*  Legitime  par  la  necessite. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  99 

deeds  perpetrated  by  the  French  and  Indians  in  America, 
were  marked  with  great  ferocity  and  cruelty.  And  the 
retaHation  which  these  deeds  provoked  was,  although  far 
less  abhorrent,  fearfully  desolating.  Port  Royal  in  Acadie 
was  captured  and  twice  plundered.  Vigorous  measures 
were  adopted  also  for  the  conquest  of  all  the  French  pos- 
sessions in  Canada.  At  length  however  the  Treaty  of 
Ryswick  (1697)  stayed  for  a  time  the  malignant  strife  in 
which  both  parties  had  associated  with  themselves  hordes 
of  fierce,  merciless  savages. 

The  death  of  James  II  gave  occasion  for  another  rup- 
ture between  France  and  England.  The  claim  to  the 
British  throne  inherited  by  James's  son,  James  Francis 
Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  was  maintained  by  Louis  XIV, 
who  desired  that  Queen  Anne,  who  was  James's  daughter 
and  England's  choice,  should  be  supplanted  by  the 
Prince,  commonly  known  as  the  "  Pretender."  Now 
began  "  Queen  Anne's  War  "  (1702),  which  continued  for 
eleven  years  to  embroil  the  colonists.  The  sanguinary 
scenes  of  the  preceding  war  were  re-enacted  by  the 
French  and  Indians.  And  the  English  colonists  once 
more  engaged  in  a  successful  expedition  against  Port 
Royal,  which  had  been  restored  to  France.  But  peace 
once  more  was  proclaimed  after  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht 
(1713) ;  and  now,  for  almost  half  a  century,  British  col- 
onists were  reheved  from  the  visitation  of  calamities  such 
as  once  had  desolated  their  happy  homes. 

But  a  new  disagreement  arrayed  England  and  France 
against  each  other,  and  their  colonies  in  America  partook 
of  the  evils  of  another  war.  The  powers  of  Europe  had 
formally  stipulated,  in  the  terms  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion (1744),  to  secure  the  Austrian  succession  to  the 
Archduchess  Marie  Theresa,  Queen  of  Hungary.  George 
II  strictly  kept  the  pledge  given  by  Great  Britain.    Louis 


100  WASHINGTON. 

XIV  of  France  disregarded  it.  And  moreover  he 
covertly  abetted  Spain  in  a  war  with  England  respecting 
certain  rights  of  commerce ;  and  also  encouraged  and 
assisted  the  young  Pretender,  Prince  Charles  Edward, 
grandson  of  James  II,  in  asserting  his  father  the  elder 
Pretender's  claim  to  the  British  scepter.  Hence  the  two 
great  nations  were  involved  once  more  in  war;  and  their 
subjects  in  America  were  soon  again  committing  hostili- 
ties which  constituted  what  is  known  among  us  as  "  King 
George's  War."  The  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  (1748) 
brought  this  to  a  close  and  restored  to  France  Louisburg 
and  the  Island  of  Cape  Breton;  important  acquisitions 
made  by  the  British-American  colonists  three  years 
before. 

The  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  however  as  inef- 
fectual as  all  others  made  to  arrest  and  quench  the  heredi- 
tary feuds  which  set  at  irreconcilat|le  variance  nations 
whose  opinions,  predilections,  and  religious  doctrines  and 
worship,  as  well  as  their  habitual  antipathies,  conspired 
to  make  them  natural  enemies. 

As  early  as  the  year  171 5  Colonel  Spottiswoode,  then 
Governor  of  Virginia,  urged,  with  great  earnestness,  upoii 
the  British  government  the  absolute  necessity  of  making 
vigorous  resistance  to  the  aggressive  policy  of  France. 
But  his  representations,  deemed  extravagant,  were  then 
unheeded.  In  the  year  1751  however  such  was  the 
progress  of  the  adventurous  intruders  that  it  was  found 
advisable  in  Virginia  to  take  precautionary  measures  of 
defense.  The  colony  was,  with  a  view  to  this,  divided 
into  districts,  in  each  of  whi(ih  there  was  an  adjutant- 
general  or  military  inspector  with  the  rank  of  major,  who 
was  to  keep  the  militia  in  constant  readiness  for  action. 

One  of  these  military  districts  was  intrusted  to  Wash- 
ington.    He  was  then  but  nineteen  years  of  age ;  yet  his 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  101 

early  predilections  had  induced  him  to  study  some  of  the 
best  popular  treatises  on  the  art  of  war.  His  brother 
Lawrence,  Adjutant  Muse  of  Westmoreland,  who  was  a 
comrade  of  Lawrence's  in  the  West  Indies,  Jacob  Van- 
braam,  a  skilful  fencer,  and  other  soldiers  of  experience, 
had  already  imparted  to  him  a  knowledge  of  tactics,  of 
the  manual  exercise,  and  of  the  use  of  the  sword ;  and  he 
was  recognized  as  a  well-educated  officer. 

He  entered  with  great  zeal  upon  his  duties.  When 
Robert  Dinwiddie  the  next  year  became  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Virginia,  the  colony  was  divided  into  four 
military  districts.  Major  Washington's  conduct  had  al- 
ready won  for  him  a  good  report.  He  was  appointed  for 
the  northern  division.  The  counties  comprehended  in 
this  division  he  promptly  and  statedly  traversed;  and  he 
soon  effected  the  thorough  discipline  of  their  militia  for 
warlike  operations. 

It  was  amid  the  various  and  peculiar  duties  required 
by  this  position  that  his  characteristic  qualities  first  had 
free  exercise.  His  natural  dignity  commanded  a  ready 
tribute  of  respect ;  his  ability  was  universally  acknowl- 
edged with  deference ;  and  his  integrity,  industry,  and 
devotion  to  the  duties  of  his  office  exerted  that  magic 
and  authoritative  influence,  which  is  accorded  to  an  hon- 
ored leader,  whom,  it  was  now  manifest,  a  high  destiny 
awaited.  And  his  present  military  discipline  proved  to 
be  the  very  schooling  for  the  great  exploits  by  which  he 
was  to  be  qualified  to  act  as  chief  defender  of  the  cause 
of  the  united  colonies  and  to  protect  them  from  the  ter- 
rific bolts  of  vengeance  with  which,  they  were  to  be 
assailed.  By  a  remarkable  synchronism  Dr.  Franklin 
this  very  year  made  his  memorable  experiments  in  elec- 
tricity by  which  he  discovered  that,  in  the  ordering  of 
Providence,  means   are  provided  to  divest  the  thunder- 


102  WASHINGTON. 

cloud  of  its  destructive  power,  and  to  render  its  frowns 
and  threats  harmless.* 

When  Major  Washington  had  for  two  years  been  busily 
occupied  in  his  office  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  his 
council  were  informed  of  new  and  formidable  operations 
of  the  French ;  of  their  preparation  to  establish  posts  and 
erect  fortifications  on  the  western  border ;  of  their  troops 
having  crossed  the  northern  lakes  on  the  way  to  the  Ohio, 
and  having  ascended  the  Mississippi  from  New  Orleans; 
and  of  their  bold  and  avowed  purpose  to  adopt  all  neces- 
sary measures  to  possess  themselves  of  the  whole  extent 
of  territory  from  Louisiana  to  Canada. 

The  hearts  of  the  people  of  the  Old  Dominion  throbbed 
with  an  intense  feeling.  The  Lieutenant-Governor,  who 
had  received  orders  from  the  Right  Honorable  Earl  of 
Holdernesse  and  instructions  from  the  King,  resolved  to 
depute  at  once  a  special  commissioner  to  the  commandant 
of  the  French  on  the  Ohio,  for  the  purpose  of  learning 
from  him  his  intentions  and  ascertaining  his  authority. 

It  was  an  expedition  of  more  than  500  miles,  chiefly 
through  an  inhospitable  wilderness,  and  among  savages. 
The  difficulty  and  the  danger  to  be  encountered  required 
great  caution  in  selecting  the  person  to  whom  the  com- 
mission was  to  be  intrusted.  The  Lieutenant-Governor 
did  not  hesitate  however  to  appoint  Major  Washington, 
who  cheerfully  consented  to  perform,  to  the  best  of  his 
ability,  the  arduous  services  required.  He  was  now  but 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  Yet  his  discipline  as  a  surveyor 
of  wild  lands  and  his  military  experience  as  an  adjutant, 
eminently  fitted  him  for  this  particular  duty.     The  Gov- 

*  Dr.  Franklin's  experiments  were  made  in  June,  1752.  See  his 
Works,  vol.  V,  p.  177.    Boston,  1844. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  103 

ernor,  who  was  a  Scotchman,  facetiously  said  on  the  occa- 
sion when  he  observed  the  alacrity  of  the  young  major: 
"  Ye're  a  braw  lad,  and  gin  you  play  your  cards  weel,  my 
boy,  ye  shall  hae  nae  cause  to  rue  your  bargain." 

His  instructions  to  the  major  explain  the  nature  of  the 
commission,  and  comprehensively  set  forth  the  existing 
state  of  things: 

"  Whereas  I  have  received  information  of  a  body  of 
French  forces  being  assembled  in  a  hostile  manner  on 
the  river  Ohio,  intending  by  force  of  arms  to  erect  certain 
forts  on  the  said  river  within  this  territory  and  contrary 
to  the  dignity  and  peace  of  our  sovereign,  the  King  of 
Great  Britain: 

"  These  are  therefore  to  require  and  direct  you,  the 
said  George  Washington,  forthwith  to  repair  to  Logstown 
on  the  said  river  Ohio ;  and,  having  there  informed  your- 
self where  the  said  French  forces  have  posted  themselves, 
thereupon  to  proceed  to  such  place;  and  being  there  ar- 
rived, to  present  your  credentials  together  with  my  letter 
to  the  chief  commanding  officer,  and  in  the  name  of  his 
Britannic  Majesty  to  demand  an  answer  thereto. 

*'  On  your  arrival  at  Logstown  you  are  to  address  your- 
self to  the  Half-King,  to  Manacatoocha,  and  other  the 
sachems  of  the  Six  Nations;  acquainting  them  with  your 
orders  to  visit  and  deliver  my  letter  to  the  French  com- 
manding officer,  and  desiring  the  said  chiefs  to  appoint 
you  a  sufficient  number  of  their  warriors  to  be  your  safe- 
guard as  near  the  French  as  you  may  desire,  and  to  wait 
your  further  direction. 

"  You  are  diligently  to  inquire  into  the  numbers  and 
force  of  the  French  on  the  Ohio  and  the  adjacent  country ; 
how  they  are  likely  to  be  assisted  from  Canada ;  and  what 
are  the  difficulties  and  conveniences  of  that  communica- 
tion, and  the  time  required  for  it. 


104  WASHINGTON. 

'  ■>^. 
"  You  are  to  take  care  to  be  truly  informed  what  forts 

the  French  have  erected,  and  where;  how  they  are  gar- 
risoned and  appointed,  and  what  is  their  distance  from 
each  other,  and  from  Logstown ;  and,  from  the  best  intel- 
Hgence  you  can  procure,  you  are  to  learn  what  gave  occa- 
sion to  this  expedition  of  the  French ;  how  they  are  likely 
to  be  supported,  and  what  their  pretensions  are. 

"  When  the  French  commandant  has  given  you  the 
required  and  necessary  dispatches,  you  are  to  desire  of 
him  a  proper  guard  to  protect  you,  as  far  on  your  return 
as  you  judge  for  your  safety,  against  any  straggling  In- 
dians or  hunters  that  may  be  ignorant  of  your  character 
and  molest  you. 

'*  Wishing  you  good  success  in  your  negotiation,  and  a 
safe  and  speedy  return,  I  am,  &c. 

"  Robert  Dinwiddie. 

"  Williamsburg,  ^oth  October. 

The  Governor  furnished  him  at  the  same  time  with 
credentials,  in  which  he  speaks  of  "  reposing  especial  trust 
and  confidence"  in  his  "ability,  conduct,  and  fidelity." 
And  he  furnished  also  a  passport,  commanding  all  his 
Majesty's  subjects,  and  requiring  ''  all  in  alHance  and 
amity  with  the  crown  of  Great  Britain,"  "  to  be  aiding 
and  assisting  as  a  safeguard  "  to  his  express  messenger. 

Only  twenty-four  hours  for  preparation  had  elapsed 
when  the  "  braw  lad  "  set  out  on  the  last  day  of  October, 
1753.  His  attendants  at  first  were  his  old  fencing-master, 
Vanbraam,  and  two  servants.  Vanbraam,  acquainted 
with  the  French  language,  was  to  be  interpreter.  They 
were  afterward  joined  by  an  interpreter  of  Indian  lan- 
guages, John  Davidson;  by  an  experienced  backwoods- 
man, Christopher  Gist,  as  guide ;  and  by  four  other 
persons  hired  as  "  servitors.'' 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  105 

Major  Washington's  journal  of  his  tour  on  this  occa- 
sion, brief  as  it  is,  is  a  document  of  great  and  general 
interest.  It  tells,  in  terms  pleasingly  characteristic,  his 
experience  and  observations  in  his  important  mission. 

The  subjoined  extracts,  while  they  illustrate  the  course 
of  our  narrative,  afiford  specimens  of  his  unpretending 
but  significant  daily  records. 

TOUR  OVER  THE  ALLEGHANY  MOUNTAINS. 

*'  I  was  commissioned  and  appointed  by  the  Honorable 
Robert  Dinwiddle,  Esq.,  Governor  of  Virginia,  to  visit  and 
deliver  a  letter  to  the  commandant  of  the  French  forces 
on  the  Ohio,  and  set  out  on  the  intended  journey  on  the 
same  day.  The  next  I  arrived  at  Fredericksburg  and  en- 
gaged Mr.  Jacob  Vanbraam  to  be  my  French  interpreter, 
and  proceeded  with  him  to  Alexandria,  where  we  provided 
necessaries.  From  thence  we  went  to  Winchester  and 
got  baggage,  horses,  etc.;  and  from  thence  we  pursued 
the  new  road  to  Wills  Creek,  where  we  arrived  on  the 
14th  of  November.     *     *     * 

"  The  excessive  rains  and  vast  quantity  of  snow  which 
had  fallen  prevented  our  reaching  Mr.  Frazier's,  an  Indian 
trader,  at  the  mouth  of  Turtle  creek,  on  the  Monongahela 
river,  until  Thursday  the  twenty-second.     *     *     * 

"  The  waters  were  quite  impassable  without  swimming 
our  horses,  which  obliged  us  to  get  the  loan  of  a  canoe 
from  Frazier,  and  to  send  Barnaby  Currin  and  Henry 
Steward*  down  the  Monongahela  with  our  baggage,  to 
meet  us  at  the  Fork  of  the  Ohio,  about  ten  miles;  there  to 
cross  the  Alleghany. 

*  These  persons  were  two  of  the  four  hired  "  servitors."  Barnaby 
Currin  was  an  Indian  trader. 


106  WASHINGTON. 

"As  I  got  down  before  the  canoe,  I  spent  some  time  in 
viewing  the  rivers  and  the  land  in  the  Fork,  which  I  think 
extremely  well  situated  for  a  fort,  as  it  has  the  absolute 
command  of  both  rivers.  The  land  at  the  point  is  twenty 
or  twenty-five  feet  above  the  common  surface  of  the  water, 
and  a  considerable  bottom  of  flat,  well-timbered  land 
around  it,  very  convenient  for  building.  The  rivers  are 
each  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or  more  across,  and  run  here  very 
nearly  at  right  angles;  Alleghany  bearing  northeast,  and 
Monongahela  southeast.  The  former  of  these  two  is  a 
very  rapid  and  swift-running  water;  the  other  deep  and 
still,  without  any  perceptible  fall. 

''About  two  miles  from  this,  on  the  southeast  side  of 
the  river,  at  the  place  where  the  Ohio  Company  intended 
to  erect  a  fort,  lives  Shingiss,  King  of  the  Delawares.  We 
called  upon  him  to  invite  him  to  council  at  Logstown. 

"As  I  had  taken  a  good  deal  of  notice  yesterday  of  the 
situation  at  the  Fork,  my  curiosity  led  me  to  examine 
this  more  particularly,  and  I  think  it  greatly  inferior,  either 
for  defense  or  advantages  —  especially  the  latter.  For 
a  fort  at  the  Fork  would  be  equally  well  situated  on  the 
Ohio  and  have  the  entire  command  of  the  Monongahela, 
which  runs  up  our  settlement,  and  is  extremely  well 
designed  for  water  carriage  as  it  is  of  a  deep,  still  nature. 
Besides,  a  fort  at  the  Fork*  might  be  built  at  much  less 
expense  than  at  the  other  places.     *     *     * 

"  Shingiss  attended  us  to  the  Logstown,  where  we  ar- 
rived between  sunsetting  and  dark,  the  twenty-fifth  day 
after  I  left  Williamsburg.     *     *     * 

"As  soon  as  I  came  into  town,  I  went  to  Monacatoocha 
(as  the  Half-King  was  out  at  his  hunting  cabin  on  Little 
Beaver  creek,  about  fifteen  miles  off),  and  informed  him 

V 

*  The  spot  here  designated  is  the  site  of  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  107 

by  John  Davidson,  my  Indian  interpreter,  that  I  was  sent 
a  messenger  to  the  French  general,  and  was  ordered  to 
call  upon  the  sachems  of  the  Six  Nations,  to  acquaint 
them  with  it.  I  gave  him  a  string  of  wampum  and  a 
twist  of  tobacco,  and  desired  him  to  send  for  the  Half- 
King  (which  he  promised  to  do,  by  a  runner,  in  the  morn- 
ing), and  for  other  sachems.  I  invited  him  and  the  other 
great  men  present  to  my  tent,  where  they  stayed  about 
an  hour  and  returned.     *     *     * 

"  November  25th.  Came  to  town  four  of  ten  French- 
men, who  had  deserted  from  a  company  at  the  Kuskuskas, 
which  lies  at  the  mouth  of  this  river.     *     *     * 

"  I  inquired  into  the  situation  of  the  French  on  the 
Mississippi,  their  numbers  and  what  forts  they  had  built. 
They  informed  me  that  there  were  four  small  forts  be- 
tween New  Orleans  and  the  Black  Islands,  garrisoned 
with  about  thirty  or  forty  men  and  a  few  small  pieces  in 
each' ;  that  at  New  Orleans,  which  is  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi,  there  are  thirty-five  companies  of  forty  men 
each,  with  a  pretty  strong  fort  mounting  eight  carriage 
guns;  and  at  the  Black  Islands  there  are  several  com- 
panies and  a  fort  with  six  guns. 

"  The  Black  Islands  are  about  130  leagues  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio,  which  is  about  350  above  New 
Orleans.  They  also  acquainted  me  that  there  was  a 
small  palisadoed  fort  on  the  Ohio  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Obaish,  about  sixty  leagues  from  the  Mississippi. 
The  Obaish  heads  near  the  west  end  of  Lake  Erie  and 
affords  the  communication  between  the  French  on  the 
Mississippi  and  those  on  the  lakes.  The  deserters  came 
up  from  the  lower  Shannoah  town  with  one  Brown,  an 
Indian  trader,  and  were  going  to  Philadelphia. 

"About  3  o'clock  this  evening  the  Half-King  came  to 


108  WASHINGTON. 

town.     *     *     *     He  told  me  he  was  received  in  a  very 
stern  manner  by  the  late   [French]  commander. 

"  26th.  We  met  in  council  at  the  long  house  about  9 
o^clock  where  I  spoke  to  them  as  follows : 

"  '  Brothers. —  I  have  called  you  together  in  council 
by  order  of  your  brother,  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  to 
acquaint  you  that  I  am  sent  with  all  possible  dispatch  to 
visit  and  deliver  a  letter  to  the  French  commandant  of 
very  great  importance  to  your  brothers,  the  English,  and 
I  dare  say  to  you,  their  friends  and  allies. 

" '  I  was  desired,  brothers,  by  your  brother,  the  Gov- 
ernor, to  call  upon  you,  the  sachems  of  the  nations,  to 
inform  you  of  it  and  to  ask  your  advice  and  assistance 
to  proceed  the  nearest  and  best  road  to  the  French.  You 
see,  brothers,  I  have  gotten  thus  far  on  my  journey. 

His  Honor  likewise  desired  mq  to  apply  to  you  for 
some  of  your  young  men  to  conduct  and  provide  provi- 
sions for  us  on  our  way  and  be  a  safeguard  against  those 
French  Indians  who  have  taken  up  the  hatchet  against 
us.  I  have  spoken  thus  particularly  to  you,  brothers, 
because  his  Honor,  our  Governor,  treats  you  as  good 
friends  and  allies,  and  holds  you  in  great  esteem.  To 
confirm  what  I  have  said  I  give  you  this  string  of 
wampum.' 

"  After  they  had  considered  for  some  time  on  the  above 
discourse  the  Half-King  got  up  and  spoke: 

Now,  my  brother,  in  regard  to  what  my  brother,  the 
Governor,  had  desired  of  me  I  return  you  this  answer : 

"  *  I  rely  upon  you  as  a  brother  ought  to  do,  as  you 
say  we  are  brothers  and  one  people.  We  shall  put  heart 
in  hand  and  speak  to  our  fathers,  the  French,  concerning 
the  speech  they  made  to  me  and  you  may  depend  that  we 
will  endeavor  to  be  your  guard. 

Brother,  as  you  have  asked  my  advice,  I  hope  you 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  109 

will  be  ruled  by  it  and  stay  until  I  can  provide  a  company 
to  go  with  you.  The  French  speech  belt  is  not  here;  I 
have  to  go  for  it  to  my  hunting  cabin.  Likewise  the 
people  whom  I  have  ordered  in  are  not  yet  come  and  can- 
not until  the  third  night  from  this;  until  which  time, 
brother,  I  must  beg  you  to  stay. 

" '  I  intend  to  send  the  guard  of  Mingoes,  Shannoahs, 
and  Delawares,  that  our  brothers  may  see  the  love  and 
loyalty  we  bear  them.' 

"As  I  had  orders  to  make  all  possible  dispatch  and 
waiting  here  was  very  contrary  to  my  inclination,  I 
thanked  him  in  the  most  suitable  manner  I  could,  and  told 
him  that  my  business  required  the  greatest  expedition, 
and  would  not  admit  of  that  delay.     *     *     * 

"  30th.  We  set  out  about  9  o'clock  with  the  Half-King, 
Jeskakatke,  White  Thunder,  and  the  Hunter,  and  traveled 
on  the  road  to  Venango,  where  we  arrived  on  the  fourth 
of  December,  without  anything  remarkable  happening 
but  a  continued  series  of  bad  weather. 

"  This  is  an  old  Indian  town  situated  at  the  mouth  of 
French  creek,  on  the  Ohio,  and  lies  near  north,  about 
sixty  miles  from  the  Logstown,  but  more  than  seventy 
the  way  we  were  obliged  to  go. 

"  We  found  the  French  colors  hoisted  at  a  house  from 
which  they  had  driven  Mr.  John  Frazier,  an  English 
subject.  I  immediately  repaired  to  it  to  know  where  the 
commander  resided.  There  were  three  officers,  one  of 
whom.  Captain  Joncaire,  informed  me  that  he  had  the 
command  on  the  Ohio,  but  that  there  was  a  general 
officer  at  the  near  fort,  where  he  advised  me  to  apply  for 
an  answer.  He  invited  us  to  sup  with  them  and  treated 
us  with  the  greatest  complaisance. 

"  The  wine,  as  they  dosed  themselves  pretty  plentifully 
with  it,  soon  banished  the  restraint  which  at  first  appeared 


110  WASHINGTON. 

in  their  conversation  and  gave  a  license  to  their  tongues 
to  reveal  their  sentiments  more  freely. 

"They  told  me  that  it  was  their  absolute  design  to  take 
possession  of  the  Ohio,  and  by  G— d  they  would  do  it, 
for,  that  although  they  were  sensible  the  EngHsh  could 
raise  two  men  for  their  one,  they  knew  their  motions 
were  too  slow  and  dilatory  to  prevent  any  undertaking 
of  theirs. 

"  They  pretend  to  have  an  undoubted  right  to  the  river 
from  a  discovery  made  by  one  La  Salle  sixty  years  ago; 
and  the  rise  of  this  expedition  is  to  prevent  our  settling 
on  the  river  or  waters  of  it,  as  they  heard  of  some  fami- 
Hes  moving  out  in  order  thereto. 

"  From  the  best  intelligence  I  could  get  there  have  been 
1,500  men  on  this  side  of  Ontario  lake.  But  upon  the 
death  of  the  general  all  were  recalled  to  about  600  or  700, 
who  were  left  to  garrison  four  forts,  150  or  thereabout  in 
each.  The  first*  of  them  is  on  French  creek,  near  a  small 
lake  about  sixty  miles  from  Venango  near  north-north- 
west; the  next  lies  on  Lake  Erie,  where  the  greater  part 
of  their  stores  is  kept,  about  fifteen  miles  from  the  other. 
From  this  it  is  120  miles  to  the  carrying-place  at  the  Falls 
of  Lake  Erie,  where  there  is  a  small  fort  at  which  they 
lodge  their  goods  in  bringing  them  from  Montreal,  the 
place  from  which  all  their  stores  are  brought. 

"The  next  fort  lies  about  twenty  miles  from  this  on 
Ontario  lake.  Between  this  fort  and  Montreal  there  are 
three  others,  the  first  of  which  is  nearly  opposite  to  the 
English  fort  Oswego.  From  the  fort  on  Lake  Erie  to 
Montreal  is  about  600  miles,  which,  they  say,  requires  no 

*[This  first  fort,  within  fifteen  miles  of  Lake  Erie,  was  the  final 
point  of  the  journey;  it  was  about  560  miles  from  Williamsburg. 
The  journey  to  it  had  taken  forty-one  days.] 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  Ill 

more  (if  good  weather)  than  four  weeks'  voyage  if  they 
go  in  barks  or  large  vessels  so  that  they  may  cross 
the  lake,  but  if  they  come  in  canoes  it  will  require 
five  or  six  weeks,  for  they  are  obliged  to  keep  under 
the  shore.     *     *     * 

"  December  7th.  Monsieur  La  Force,  commissary  of 
the  French  stores,  and  three  other  soldiers,  came  over  to 
accompany  us  up.  We  found  it  extremely  difficult  to  get 
the  Indians  off  to-day,  as  every  stratagem  had  been  used 
to  prevent  their  going  up  with  me.     *     *     * 

"At  12  o'clock  we  set  out  for  the  fort  and  were  pre- 
vented arriving  there  until  the  eleventh  by  excessive  rains, 
snows,  and  bad  traveling  through  many  mires  and 
swamps.     *     *     * 

"  1 2th.  I  prepared  early  to  wait  upon  the  commander 
and  was  received  and  conducted  to  him  by  the  second 
officer  in  command.  I  acquainted  him  with  my  business 
and  offered  my  commission  and  letter,  both  of  which  he 
desired  me  to  keep  until  the  arrival  of  Monsieur  Reparti, 
captain  at  the  next  fort,  who  was  sent  for  and  expected 
every  hour. 

"This  commander  is  a  knight  of  the  Military  Order  of 
St.  Louis  and  named  Legardeur  de  St.  Pierre.  He  is  an 
elderly  gentleman  and  has  much  the  air  of  a  soldier.  He 
was  sent  over  to  take  the  command  immediately  upon  the 
death  of  the  late  general  and  arrived  here  about  seven 
days  before  me. 

"At  2  o'clock  the  gentleman  who  was  sent  for  arrived, 
when  I  offered  the  letter,  etc.,  again,  which  they  received, 
and  adjourned  into  a  private  apartment  for  the  captain 
to  translate,  who  understood  a  little  English.  After  he 
had  done  it  the  commander  desired  I  would  walk  in  and 
bring  my  interpreter  to  peruse  and  correct  it,  which  I 
did. 


112  WASHINGTON. 

"  13th.  The  chief  officers  retired  to  hold  a  council  of 
war  which  gave  me  an  opportunity  of  taking  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  fort  and  making  what  observations  I  could. 

"  It  is  situated  on  the  south  or  west  fork  of  French 
creek,  near  the  water,  and  is  almost  surrounded  by  the 
creek  and  a  small  branch  of  it,  which  form  a  kind  of 
island.  Four  houses  compose  the  sides.  The  bastions 
are  made  of  piles  driven  in  the  ground,  standing  more 
than  twelve  feet  above  it  and  sharp  at  top  with  port  holes 
cut  for  cannon,  and  loop  holes  for  the  small  arms  to  fire 
through.  There  are  eight  six-pound  pieces  mounted  in 
each  bastion  and  one  piece  of  four  pound  before  the  gate. 
In  the  bastions  are  a  guardhouse,  chapel,  doctor's  lodg- 
ing, and  the  commander's  private  store,  round  which  are 
laid  platforms  for  the  cannon  and  men  to  stand  on.  There 
are  several  barracks  without  the  fort  for  the  soldiers' 
dwellings,  covered,  some  with  bark  and  some  with  boards, 
made  chiefly  of  logs.  There  are  also  several  other  houses, 
such  as  stables,  smith's  shop,  etc. 

"  I  could  get  no  certain  account  of  the  number  of  men 
here,  but,  according  to  the  best  judgment  I  could  form, 
there  are  a  hundred,  exclusive  of  officers,  of  whom  there 
are  many.     *     *     * 

''  14th.  As  the  snow  increased  very  fast,  and  our  horses 
daily  became  weaker,  I  sent  them  off  unloaded,  *  *  * 
intending  myself,  to  go  down  by  water.     *     *     * 

[The  return  from  the  French  station  was  with  a  canoe, 
plentifully  stocked  with  provisions,  liquors,  and  all  needed 
supplies,  through  the  courtesy  of  the  French  com- 
mandant.] 

"  I  was  inquiring  of  the  commander  by  what  authority 
he  had  made  prisoners  of  several  of  our  English  subjects : 
He  told  me  that  the  country  belonged  to  them,  that  no 
Englishman  had  a  right  to  trade  upon  those  waters,  and 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  113 

that  he  had  orders  to  make  every  person  prisoner  who  at- 
tempted it  on  the  Ohio  or  the  waters  of  it.     *     *     * 

"  This  evening  I  received  an  answer  to  his  Honor  the 
Governor's  letter,  from  the  commandant. 

"  15th.  The  commandant  ordered  a  plentiful  store  of 
liquor  and  provisions  to  be  put  on  board  our  canoes,  and 
appeared  to  be  extremely  complaisant,  though  he  was  ex- 
erting every  artifice  that  he  could  invent  to  set  our  Indians 
at  variance  with  us  and  prevent  their  going  until  after  our 
departure,  presents,  rewards,  and  everything  that  could  be 
suggested  by  him  or  his  officers. 

"  I  cannot  say  that  ever  in  my  life  I  suffered  so  much 
anxiety  as  I  did  in  this  affair.  I  saw  that  every  stratagem 
which  the  most  fruitful  brain  could  invent  was  practiced  to 
win  the  Half- King  to  their  interest.     *     *     * 

"  i6th.  We  had  a  tedious  and  very  fatiguing  passage 
down  the  creek.  Several  times  we  had  Hke  to  have  been 
staved  against  rocks,  and  many  times  were  obliged,  all 
hands,  to  get  out  and  remain  in  the  water  half  an  hour  or 
more,  getting  over  the  shoals.  At  one  place  the  ice  had 
lodged  and  made  it  impassable  by  water ;  we  were  therefore 
obliged  to  carry  our  canoe  across  the  neck  of  land,  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  over.  We  did  not  reach  Venango  until  the  twenty- 
second,  where  we  met  with  our  horses.     *     *     * 

"  23d.  Our  horses  were  now  so  weak  and  feeble  and  the 
baggage  so  heavy  (as  we  were  obliged  to  provide  all  the 
necessaries  which  the  journey  would  require),  that  we 
doubted  much  their  performing  it.  Therefore  myself  and 
others,  except  the  drivers  who  were  obliged  to  ride,  gave 
up  our  horses  for  packs  to  assist  along  with  the  baggage. 

"  I  put  myself  in  an  Indian  walking  dress  and  continued 

with  them  three  days,  until  I  found  there  was  no  probability 

of  their  getting  home  in  any  reasonable  time.    The  horses 

became  less  able  to  travel  every  day,  the  cold  increased 

8 


114  WASHINGTON. 

very  fast,  and  the  roads  were  becoming  much  worse  by  a 
deep  snow  continually  freezing,  therefore  as  I  was  un- 
easy to  get  back  to  make  report  of  my  proceedings  to 
his  Honor  the  Governor,  I  determined  to  prosecute  my 
journey  the  nearest  way  through  the  woods   on  foot. 

"Accordingly  I  left  Mr.  Vanbraam  in  charge  of  our  bag- 
gage, with  money  and  directions  to  provide  necessaries 
from  place  to  place  for  themselves  and  horses  and  to  make 
the  most  convenient  dispatch  in  traveling. 

"  I  took  my  necessary  papers,  pulled  ofif  my  clothes,  and 
tied  myself  up  in  a  matchcoat.  Then  with  gun  in  hand  and 
pack  on  my  back  in  which  were  my  papers  and  provisions, 
I  set  out  with  Mr.  Gist,  fitted  in  the  same  manner,  on  Wed- 
nesday, the  twenty-sixth. 

"The  day  following  just  after  we  had  passed  a  place 
called  Murdering  Town  (where  we  intended  to  quit  the  path 
and  steer  across  the  country  for  Shannopin's  Town),  we 
fell  in  with  a  party  of  French  Indians  who  had  lain  in  wait 
for  us.  One  of  them  fired  at  Mr.  Gist  or  me  not  fifteen 
steps  off  but  fortunately  missed.  We  took  this  fellow  into 
custody  and  kept  him  until  about  9  o'clock  at  night,  then 
let  him  go  and  walked  all  the  remaining  part  of  the  night 
without  making  any  stop  that  we  might  get  the  start  so  far 
as  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  their  pursuit  the  next  day,  since 
we  were  well  assured  they  would  follow  our  track  as  soon 
as  it  was  light. 

"  The  next  day  we  continued  traveling  until  quite  dark, 
and  got  to  the  river  about  two  miles  above  Shannopin's. 
We  expected  to  find  the  river  frozen,  but  it  was  not,  only 
about  fifty  yards  from  each  shore.  The  ice,  I  suppose,  had 
broken  up  above  for  it  was  driving  in  vast  quantities. 

"  There  was  no  way  for  getting  over  but  on  a  raft  which 
we  set  about  with  but  one  poor  hatchet  and  finished  just  af- 
ter sunsetting.    This  was  a  whole  day's  work,  we  next  got 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  115 

it  launched  then  went  on  board  of  it  and  set  off.  But  be- 
fore we  were  half  way  over  we  were  jammed  in  the  ice  in 
such  a  manner  that  we  expected  every  moment  our  raft  to 
sink  and  ourselves  to  perish.  I  put  out  my  setting  pole 
to  try  to  stop  the  raft  that  the  ice  might  pass  by,  when  the 
rapidity  of  the  stream  threw  it  with  so  much  violence  against 
the  pole  that  it  jerked  me  out  into  ten  feet  of  water,  but  I 
fortunately  saved  myself  by  catching  hold  of  one  of  the 
raft  logs.  Notwithstanding  all  our  efforts  we  could  not 
get  to  either  shore  but  were  obliged  as  we  were  near  an 
island  to  quit  our  raft  and  make  to  it. 

"  The  cold  was  so  extremely  severe  that  Mr.  Gist  had 
all  his  fingers  and  some  of  his  toes  frozen,  and  the  water 
was  shut  up  so  hard  that  we  found  no  difficulty  in  getting 
off  the  island  on  the  ice  in  the  morning  and  went  to  Mr. 
Frazier's.  We  met  here  with  twenty  warriors  who  were 
going  to  the  southward  to  war,  but  coming  to  a  place  on 
the  head  of  the  Great  Kenhawa  where  they  found  seven 
people  killed  and  scalped  (all  but  one  woman  with  very 
light  hair),  they  turned  about  and  ran  back  for  fear  the  in- 
habitants should  rise  and  take  them  as  the  authors  of  the 
murder.  They  report  that  the  bodies  were  lying  about  the 
house  and  some  of  them  much  torn  and  eaten  by  the  hogs. 
By  the  marks  which  were  left  they  say  they  were  French 
Indians  of  the  Ottaway  nation  who  did  it. 

*'As  we  intended  to  take  horses  here  and  it  required 
some  time  to  find  them,  I  went  up  about  three  miles  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Youghiogheny  to  visit  Queen  Aliquippa,  who 
had  expressed  great  concern  that  we  passed  her  in  going 
to  the  fort.  I  made  her  a  present  of  a  matchcoat  and  a 
bottle  of  rum,  which  latter  was  thought  much  the  better 
present  of  the  two. 

'*  Tuesday,  the  ist  of  January  (1754),  we  left  Mr.  Frazier's 
house  and  arrived  at   Mr.    Gist's,   at   Monongahela,   the 


116  WASHINGTON. 

second,  where  I  bought  a  horse  and  saddle.  The  sixth,  we 
met  seventeen  horses  loaded  with  materials  and  stores  for 
a  fort  at  the  Fork  of  the  Ohio,  and  the  day  after  some 
families  going  out  to  settle.  This  day  we  arrived  at  Wills 
Greek,  after  as  fatiguing  a  journey  as  it  is  possible  to  con- 
ceive, rendered  so  by  excessive  bad  weather. 

"  From  the  first  day  of  December  to  the  fifteenth  there 
was  but  one  day  on  which  it  did  not  rain  or  snow  inces- 
santly, and  throughout  the  whole  journey  we  met  with  noth- 
ing but  one  continued  series  of  cold,  wet  weather,  which 
occasioned  very  uncomfortable  lodgings,  especially  after  we 
had  quitted  our  tent,  which  was  some  screen  from  the  in- 
clemency of  it. 

"  On  the  eleventh,  I  got  to  Belvoir  where  I  stopped  one 
day  to  take  necessary  rest,  and  then  set  out  and  arrived  in 
Williamsburg  the  sixteenth,  when  I  waited  upon  his  Honor 
the  Governor, with  the  letter  I  had  brought  from  the  French 
commandant,  and  to  give  an  account  of  the  success  of  my 
proceedings." 

Gaptain  Gist  also  kept  a  journal  of  this  expedition.*  And 
some  passages  of  it  afford  an  interesting  commentary  on 
what  Washington  has  more  briefly  recorded: 

"  Wednesday,  26th.  The  major  desired  me  to  set  out  on 
foot  and  leave  our  company  as  the  creeks  were  frozen  and 
our  horses  could  make  but  little  way.  Indeed,  I  was  un- 
willing he  should  undertake  such  a  travel  who  had  never 
been  used  to  walking  before  this  time.  But  as  he  insisted 
on  it  we  set  out  with  our  packs,  like  Indians,  and  traveled 
eighteen  miles.  That  night  we  lodged  at  an  Indian  cabin 
and  the  major  was  much  fatigued.     It  was  very  cold.    All 

♦Published  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Third  Series, 
vol.  V. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  117 

the  small  runs  were  frozen  so  that  we  could  hardly  get  water 
to  drink. 

"  Thursday,  27th.  We  rose  early  in  the  morning  and  set 
out  about  2  o'clock.  Got  to  Murdering  Town,  on  the 
southeast  fork  of  Beaver  creek.  Here  we  met  with  an  In- 
dian whom  I  thought  I  had  seen  at  Joncaire's,  at  Venango, 
when  on  our  journey  up  to  the  French  fort.  This  fellow 
called  me  by  my  Indian  name  and  pretended  to  be  glad  to 
see  me.  He  asked  us  several  questions,  as,  how  we  came 
to  travel  on  foot,  when  we  left  Venango,  where  we  parted 
with  our  horses,  and  when  they  would  be  there.  Major 
Washington  insisted  on  traveling  the  nearest  way  to  the 
forks  of  the  Alleghany.  We  asked  the  Indian  if  he  could 
go  with  us  and  show  us  the  nearest  way.  The  Indian 
seemed  very  glad  and  ready  to  go  with  us.  Upon  which 
we  set  out,  and  the  Indian  took  the  major's  pack.  We 
traveled  very  briskly  for  eight  or  ten  miles  when  the  major's 
feet  grew  sore  and  he  very  weary,  and  the  Indian  steered 
too  much  northeastwardly. 

"  The  major  desired  to  encamp  on  which  the  Indian 
asked  to  carry  his  gun.  But  he  refused  that  and  then 
the  Indian  grew  churlish  and  pressed  us  to  keep  on, 
telling  us  that  there  were  Ottawa  Indians  in  these  woods 
and  that  they  would  scalp  us  if  we  lay  out,  but  to  go  to 
his  cabin  and  we  should  be  safe.  I  thought  very  ill  of  the 
fellow  but  did  not  care  to  let  the  major  know  I  mistrusted 
him.  But  soon  he  mistrusted  him  as  much  as  I.  He  said 
he  could  hear  a  gun  to  his  cabin  and  steered  us  more 
northwardly.  We  grew  uneasy,  and  then  he  said  that  two 
whoops  might  be  heard  to  his  cabin.  We  went  two  miles 
farther.  Then  the  major  said  he  would  stay  at  the  next 
water,  and  we  desired  the  Indian  to  stop  at  the  next 
water.  But  before  we  came  to  water  we  came  to  a  clear 
meadow.     It  was  very  light  and  there  was  snow  on  the 


118  WASHINGTON. 

ground.  The  Indian  made  a  stop  and  turned  about.  The 
major  saw  him  point  his  gun  toward  us  and  fire.  Said 
the  major,  *  Are  you  shot?  '  '  No/  said  I.  Upon  this  the 
Indian  ran  forward  to  a  big  standing  white  oak  and  went 
to  loading  his  gun,  but  we  were  soon  with  him.  I  would 
have  killed  him  but  the  major  would  not  suffer  me  to  kill 
him. 

"  We  let  him  charge  his  gun.  We  found  he  put  in  a 
ball.  Then  we  took  care  of  him.  The  major  or  I  always 
stood  by  the  guns.  We  made  the  Indian  make  a  fire  for  us 
by  a  little  run,  as  if  we  intended  tO'  sleep  there.  I  said  to 
the  major,  'As  you  will  not  have  him  killed  we  must  get 
him  away  and  then  we  must  travel  all  night.'  Upon  this 
I  said  to  the  Indian,  *  I  suppose  you  were  lost,  and  fired 
your  gun.'  He  said  that  he  knew  the  way  to  his  cabin  and 
that  it  was  but  a  little  way.  '  Well,'  said  I,  '  do  you  go 
home,  and  as  we  are  much  tired,  we  will  follow  your  track 
in  the  morning,  and  here  is  a  cake  of  bread  for  you  and 
you  must  give  us  meat  in  the  morning.'  He  was  glad  to 
get  away.  I  followed  him  and  listened  until  he  was  fairly 
out  of  the  way.  Then  we  set  out  about  half  a  mile,  when 
we  made  a  fire,  set  our  compass  and  fixed  our  course,  and 
traveled  all  night.  In  the  morning  we  were  at  the  head  of 
Piney  creek. 

"  Friday,  28th.  We  traveled  all  the  next  day  down  the 
said  creek,  and  just  at  night  we  found  some  tracks  where 
Indians  had  been  hunting.  We  parted  and  appointed  a 
place,  a  distance  off  where  to  meet,  it  being  then  dark.  We 
encamped  and  thought  ourselves  safe  enough  to  sleep. 

"  Saturday,  29th.  We  set  out  early,  got  to  Alleghany, 
made  a  raft  and  with  much  difficulty  got  over  to  an  island 
a  little  above  Shannopin's  Town.  The  major  having  fallen 
in  from  off  the  raft,  and  my  fingers  being  frost-bitten,  and 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  119 

the  sun  down  and  it  being  very  cold,  we  contented  our- 
selves to  encamp  upon  the  island.  It  was  deep  water  be- 
tween us  and  the  shore,  but  the  cold  did  us  some  service 
for  in  the  morning  it  was  frozen  hard  enough  for  us  to  pass 
over  on  the  ice," 

Thus  was  this  expedition  accomplished  through  rain  and 
snow,  in  mid-winter,  in  intensely  cold  weather,  and  amid 
sufferings  and  perils  that  required  the  constant  exercise 
of  extraordinary  resolution,  fortitude,  and  endurance. 

The  future  chief,  habited  like  an  Indian,  with  his  gun  in 
his  hand  and  his  pack  on  his  back,  traversing  the  trackless 
wilderness,  attended  by  only  one  companion,  making  his 
way  through  "  many  mires  and  swamps,"  fording  streams, 
struggling  for  his  life  in  the  rapid  current  of  a  river, 
sometimes  carrying  his  canoe,  and  "  many  times  obliged 
to  remain  in  the  water  half  an  hour  or  more,  getting  over 
shoals,"  camping  out  in  the  woods  and  fields,  encompassed 
by  hostile  savages,  amid  hardships  almost  beyond  the 
power  of  his  iron  constitution  to  endure,  and  exposed 
to  the  danger  of  instant  death  by  the  rifle  of  his  treacherous 
Indian  guide!  Who  can  fail  to  recognize  here  the  Divine 
Hand  that  preserved  him  amid  all  his  sufferings  and  dan- 
gers, and  that  turned  aside  the  deadly  ball  aimed  at  him? 
And  who  can  fail  to  admire  in  his  treatment  of  a  mur- 
derous savage  his  noble  generosity  of  soul. 

Washington's  Journal  was  submitted  to  Governor  Din- 
widdie.  The  conduct  of  the  young  major  met  with  his  Ex- 
cellency's entire  approval,  and  created  also  a  general  senti- 
ment of  admiration. 

[Washington's  journal  of  his  expedition  to  the  Ohio 
to  challenge  the  right  of  French  troops  to  trespass  on 
ground  claimed  by  England  was  at  once  printed,  in  Vir- 
ginia and  in  England,  and  made  him  known  to  all  who 


120  WASHINGTON, 

took  note  in  Europe  of  world  movements.  Sparks  says 
here : 

"  To  make  an  impression  on  the  minds  of  the  people, 
and  if  possible  to  work  them  up  to  some  degree  of  enthu- 
siasm, and  excite  their  indignation  against  the  invaders, 
Governor  Dinwiddie  caused  Major  Washington's  journal 
to  be  published.  It  was  copied  into  nearly  all  the  news- 
papei:s  of  the  other  Colonies.  In  London  it  was  reprinted, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  government,  and  accounted  a 
document  of  much  importance,  as  unfolding  the  views  of 
the  French,  and  announcing  the  first  positive  proof  of  their 
hostile  acts  in  the  disputed  territory." 

Governor  Dinwiddie  was  convinced  by  the  report  of  his 
emissary  that  the  French  were  preparing  to  appear  in 
force  on  the  Ohio  the  next  spring,  and  that  prompt  meas- 
ures to  anticipate  the  French  movements  were  necessary. 
He  summoned  the  Virginia  Legislature  to  meet  at  an 
early  day,  to  provide  for  the  safety  of  the  Dominion,  as 
Virginia  was  then  called.  He  also  wrote  letters  to  the 
governors  of  the  other  provinces  calling  on  them  for  aid, 
in  view  of  the  common  danger.  To  New  York  and  the 
New  England  Colonies  he  suggested  the  sending  of  troops 
toward  Canada,  for  the  effect  that  it  might  have  to  pre- 
vent the  French  commander  there  from  sending  reinforce- 
ments to  the  Ohio.  The  proceeding  looked  in  the  direc- 
tion of  union,  not  to  say  distinct  confederation. 

"  These  appeals,"  says  Sparks,  "  were  of  little  avail ;  the 
governors  had  received  no  instructions ;  funds  for  military 
objects  were  not  at  their  disposal ;  and  the  assemblies  were 
slow  to  impose  taxes  even  for  the  support  of  their  own 
governments.  Some  persons  doubted  the  authority  of  the 
Governor  of  Virginia  to  meddle  in  so  grave  a  matter; 
others  were  not  convinced  that  the  French  had  encroached 
upon  the  King's  lands ;  and  others  regarded  it  as  a  national 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  121 

concern,  in  wHich  the  Colonies  had  no  right  to  interfere 
without  direct  orders  and  assistance  from  the  King.  If 
treaties  have  been  violated,  said  they,  it  is  not  for  us  to 
avenge  the  insult  and  precipitate  a  war  by  our  zeal  and 
rashness. 

"  In  short,  the  call  was  premature,  and  there  was  little 
hope  of  co-operation  from  the  other  Colonies.  Messen- 
gers were  dispatched  to  the  southern  Indians,  the  Catawbas 
and  Cherokees,  inviting  them  to  join  in  repelling  a  com- 
mon enemy,  who  had  already  engaged  in  their  behalf  the 
powerful  nations  of  Chippewas  and  Ottowas.  Reliance 
was  also  placed  on  the  friendship  of  the  Twigtwees,  Dela- 
wares,  and  other  tribes  beyond  the  Ohio. 

"  When  the  Assembly  met,  a  difference  of  opinion  pre- 
vailed as  to  the  measures  that  ought  to  be  pursued;  but 
iio,ooo  were  finally  voted  for  the  defense  of  the  Colony, 
cloaked  under  the  title  of  an  act  "  for  the  encouragement 
and  protection  of  the  settlers  on  the  Mississippi."  The 
Governor's  equanimity  was  severely  tried.  The  King's 
prerogative  and  his  own  dignity  he  thought  were  not 
treated  with  due  respect.  So  obtuse  were  some  of  the 
burgesses  that  they  could  not  perceive  the  justice  of  the 
King's  claims  to  the  lands  in  question,  and  they  had  the 
boldness  to  let  their  doubts  be  known  in  a  full  assembly. 
"  You  may  well  conceive,"  said  the  Governor  in  writing 
to  a  friend,  "  how  I  fired  at  this ;  that  an  English  Legisla- 
ture should  presume  to  doubt  the  right  of  His  Majesty 
to  the  interior  parts  of  this  continent,  the  back  of  his  do- 
minions." And,  alluding  to  one  of  the  members,  he  added, 
"  How  this  French  spirit  could  possess  a  person  of  his  high 
distinction  and  sense,  I  know  not."  Another  point  was 
still  more  annoying  to  him.  The  Assembly  appointed 
commissioners  to  superintend  the  appropriation  of  the 
funds.     This  act  he  took  as  a  slight  to  himself,  since  by 


122  WASHINGTON. 

virtue  of  his  office  the  disposal  of  money  for  pubHc  uses 
ought  to  rest  exclusively  with  the  Governor.  Such  was 
his  dew  of  the  matter,  and  he  declared  that  nothing  but 
the  extreme  urgency  of  the  case  should  have  induced  him 
to  sign  the  bill. 

"  To  the  Earl  of  Holdernesse  he  complained  of  the  way- 
ward temper  and  strange  doings  of  the  Assembly.  ''  I  am 
sorry  to  find  them/'  said  he,  "  very  much  in  a  repubHcan 
way  of  thinking;  and,  indeed,  they  do  not  act  in  a  proper 
constitutional  way,  but  make  encroachments  on  the  pre- 
rogative of  the  crown,  in  which  some  former  governors 
have  submitted  too  much  to  them ;  and,  I  fear,  without  a 
very  particular  instruction,  it  will  be  difficult  to  bring 
them  to  order."] 

By  order  of  the  Governor  and  council  two  companies  of 
a  hundred  men  each  were  raised  in  the  northern  countries 
and  Major  Washington  was  intrusted  with  the  chief  com- 
mand of  them.  His  journal  was  published  by  order  of  the 
Governor,  was  widely  circulated  in  Virginia  and  other  col- 
onies, and  was  reprinted  in  England,  at  the  instance  of  the 
British  government  as  an  unmasking  of  the  secret  and  un- 
warrantable designs  of  France. 

Supplied  with  the  appropriation  for  "  the  encourage- 
ment and  protection  of  settlers  on  the  Mississippi,  the 
Governor  increased  the  number  of  companies  to  six,  of 
fifty  men  each.  Major  Washington  was  spoken  of  as  the 
most  suitable  leader  of  the  proposed  enterprise  in  which 
these  companies  were  to  be  engaged,  but  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  his  character,  he  declined  the  post. 

In  a  letter  to  Richard  Corbin,  a  member  of  the  Governor's 
council,  he  says  (March,  1754) : 

"  In  a  conversation  with  you  at  Green  Spring  you  gave 
me  some  room  to  hope  for  a  commission  above  that  of 
major,  and  to  be  ranked  among  the  chief  officers  of  this 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  123 

expedition.  The  command  of  the  whole  forces  is  what  I 
neither  look  for,  expect,  nor  desire,  for  I  must  be  impartial 
enough  to  confess  it  is  a  charge  too  great  for  my  youth 
and  inexperience  to  be  intrusted  with. 

"  Knowing  this,  I  have  too  sincere  a  love  for  my  country 
to  undertake  that  which  may  tend  to  the  prejudice  of  it. 
But  if  I  could  entertain  hopes  that  you  thought  me  worthy 
of  the  post  of  lieutenant-colonel,  and  would  favor  me  so  far 
as  to  mention  it  at  the  appointment  of  officers  I  could  not 
but  entertain  a  true  sense  of  the  kindness. 

**  I  flatter  myself  that  under  a  skillful  commander,  or 
man  of  sense  —  whom  I  most  sincerely  wish  to  serve  under 
—  with  my  own  application  and  diligent  study  of  my  duty 
I  shall  be  able  to  conduct  my  steps  without  censure  and 
in  time  render  myself  worthy  of  the  promotion  that  I 
shall  be  favored  with  now." 

[The  reply  of  Mr.  Corbin,  acknowledged  by  Washing- 
ton from  Alexandria,  March  20,  1754,  was:  "Dear 
George :  I  enclose  you  your  commission.  God  prosper 
you  with  it.     Your  Friend,  Richard  Corbin."] 

The  newly  raised  companies  were  placed  under  Col. 
Joshua  Fry  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Washington. 

Large  grants  of  land  on  the  Ohio  river  were  promised 
as  a  bounty  to  the  troops.  The  British  ministry  also  au- 
thorized the  Governor  to  summon  two  companies  from 
New  York  and  one  from  South  Carolina,  and  North  Caro- 
lina voted  supplies  and  troops. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Washington  having  collected  at  Al- 
exandria by  enlistment,  two  companies,  set  out  with  them 
on  the  second  day  of  April  (1754),  and  at  Wills  Creek  he 
was  joined  on  the  twentieth  by  Captain  Stephen  with  an- 
other  company. 

But  soon  intelligence  of  a  daring  outrage  committed 
by  the  French  was  conveyed  to  him.     They  had  descended 


124  WASHINGTON. 

the  river  from  Venango,  with  a  mihtary  force  said  to  be 
"  upwards  of  a  thousand  men,"  with  eighteen  pieces  of 
cannon,  sixty  bateaux,  and  three  hundred  canoes,  under 
command  of  Captain  Contrecoeur,  and  had  expelled  from 
their  post  a  party  acting  under  the  direction  of  the  Ohio 
Company. 

This  company,  an  association  of  Virginia  and  Maryland 
planters  and  London  merchants,  who  proposed  to  settle 
lands  on  the  Ohio,  had  received  from  the  King  in  the  year 
1749  a  grant  of  600  acres,  with  the  exclusive  right  of  trade 
with  the  neighboring  Indians ;  and  had  sent  out  a  party  of 
thirty  men  to  build  a  fort  at  or  near  the  Fork  of  the  Ohio. 

[This  company  was  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Trent,  an  officer  closely  connected  with  the  trader  Cro- 
ghan.] 

Captain  Trent  also  was  occupied  there  in  enlisting  men 
from  among  the  traders  to  form  a  company  that  should 
co-operate  with  the  troops  under  Major  Washington.  But 
at  the  time  when  Captain  Contrecoeur  appeared  Captain 
Trent  and  his  lieutenant,  Frazier,  were  absent  and  Ensign 
Ward  was  in  command.  He  had  with  him  no  more  than 
forty-one  men,  including  the  Ohio  Company's  party.  The 
rash  thought  of  resistance  he  could  not  entertain.  At  the 
threatening  as  well  as  peremptory  summons  of  the  French 
captain,  who  allowed  him  but  an  hour  for  consideration,  he 
capitulated.  On  the  next  day  he  proceeded  with  his  men 
to  the  mouth  of  Redstone  creek. 

The  French  now  seized  the  post  thus  vacated ;  they  com- 
pleted the  unfinished  work,  and  they  named  it,  in  honor  of 
the  Governor-General  of  Canada,  "  Fort  Duquesne."' 

This  flagrant  act,  the  warrant  and  the  signal  for  a  de- 
cided opposition,  was  the  commencement  of  hostilities 
which  continued  for  seven  years  and  which  constitute  what 
is  known  as  the   Seven    Years'  War  (1754-1761),  or   the 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  135 

French  and  Indian  War,  an  important  period  in  our  ante- 
revolutionary  annals. 

[The  imperialism  which  has  characterized  English  de- 
velopments throughout  the  world  came  into  play  for  de- 
termination of  the  destiny  of  North  America  at  the  mo- 
ment when  young  Washington  was  just  over  the  threshold 
of  active  life.  The  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  signed  Octo- 
ber i8,  1748,  in  confident  hope  of  the  peace  of  Europe, 
left  open  an  immense  possibility  of  contest  in  America 
for  dominion  throughout  the  vast  unsettled  region  over 
which  hung  the  star  of  empire  beyond  the  AUeghanies 
and  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  Within  the  limits 
of  what  England  claimed  as  her  domain,  France  had 
planted  not  only  trading  posts  and  block-houses,  but  a 
score  of  forts,  and  the  eagles  of  conquest  were  on  the 
wing  over  the  forests  from  Canada  to  the  Ohio.  A  num- 
ber of  London  merchants  and  Virginia  adventurers  had 
secured,  in  1749,  a  charter  granting  to  them,  under  the 
name  of  ''  the  Ohio  Company,"  half  a  milhon  acres  of 
land  on  the  Ohio,  upon  condition  of  the  settlement  within 
seven  years  of  100  families,  the  building  of  a  fort  at  their 
own  cost,  and  the  maintenance  of  defense  against  the  In- 
dians. Thomas  Lee,  president  of  the  council  of  Vir- 
ginia, was  its  first  manager;  Augustine  and  Lawrence 
Washington,  older  half-brothers  of  George  Washington, 
were  in  it,  and  on  Mr.  Lee's  death  the  management  was 
in  the  hands  of  Lawrence  Washington.  But  before  the 
company  could  begin  operations  the  French,  early  in  1749, 
had  begun  to  assert  possession  through  a  deputy  of  the 
Governor  of  Canada,  Celeron  de  Bienville,  at  the  head  of 
300  men.  To  emphasize  this  invasion  the  French  fastened 
upon  trees,  and  also  buried  in  the  earth,  leaden  plates  in- 
scribed with  the  claims  of  France  to  all  the  lands  on  the 
Ohio  and  its  tributaries.     They  also  gave  to  the  Indians 


126  WASHINGTON. 

presents  and  speeches  of  good-will,  and  warned  them  not 
to  trade  with  the  English.  Traders  from  Pennsylvania 
found  in  the  region  they  challenged  as  intruders,  and  sent 
notifications  to  Governor  Hamilton,  of  Pennsylvania,  that 
English  traders  would  be  vigorously  dealt  with  for  tres- 
pass on  French  domain.  It  was  of  importance  to  Penn- 
vSylvania  to  preserve  friendship  and  trade  with  the  Indian 
tribes,  and  early  in  October,  1749,  Governor  Hamilton 
sent  George  Croghan,  an  old  and  capable  trader,  to  un- 
dertake to  put  in  execution  plans  for  a  general  council  of 
all  the  Indian  tribes  at  Logstown,  on  the  Ohio,  in  the 
spring  of  1750.  About  the  same  time  the  Ohio  Company 
dispatched  a  noted  pioneer  and  experienced  woodsman, 
Christopher  Gist,  to  make  exploration  for  lands  on  the 
Ohio  and  its  branches,  to  get  information  of  value  to  set- 
tlers, and  to  deal  with  the  Indian  tribes. 

Both  Croghan  and  Gist  made  their  way  to  Logstown, 
an  Indian  village  a  little  farther  down  the  Ohio  than  the 
site  where  Pittsburg  now  is,  and  the  seat  of  a  Seneca  chief 
of  great  note,  who  was  known  as  the  Half-King,  because 
of  his  subordinate  relation  to  the  great  Iroquois  confed- 
eracy and  his  headship  of  the  mixed  tribes  which  had 
"  gone  West "  to  the  Ohio  and  its  branches  from  the  more 
eastern  seats  of  Indian  power  and  population.  Croghan 
was  at  Logstown  before  Gist,  and  had  gone  thence  into 
the  heart  of  the  Ohio  lands,  to  Muskingum,  and  brought 
together  there  under  the  English  flag  all  the  agents  of  his 
extensive  trade  among  the  Indians.  Gist  overtook  Cro- 
ghan at  Muskingum,  and  at  a  council  of  the  natives  held 
there  g^ve  them  an  invitation  from  the  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia to  visit  him  and  receive  a  large  present  of  goods 
sent  by  the  great  English  King  to  his  Ohio  children. 
Visits  by  the  two  English  emissaries  to  the  Delawares 
and  the  Shawnees  on  the  Scioto  met  with  equal  welcome, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  127 

and  from  thence  the  two  went  north  200  miles  to  the  In- 
dian town  of  Piqua,  beyond  the  Miami  river,  the  seat  of 
the  four  tribes  who  formed  the  most  powerful  confederacy 
of  the  Great  West.  Here  Croghan  secured  engagements 
of  friendship  with  Pennsylvania,  and  Gist  took  pledges 
from  the  chiefs  that  they  would  attend  the  council  at  Logs- 
town  the  next  spring. 

During  the  proceedings  here,  two  Ottawas,  sent  from 
the  French,  appeared  on  the  scene  with  two  kegs  of 
"  milk  "  (i.  e.,  brandy)  and  a  roll  of  ten  pounds  of  tobacco ; 
but  no  impression  was  made  by  these  ambassadors;  on 
the  contrary  they  were  served  with  notice  that  the  tribes 
on  the  Ohio  would  join  the  great  Six  Nations  Indian  con- 
federacy, bordering  on  Lake  Ontario,  in  maintaining 
friendship  with  the  EngHsh.  The  Ottawas,  therefore,  tak- 
ing the  "  milk  "  and  tobacco,  and  leaving  their  curses,  re- 
turned whence  they  came. 

The  Six  Nations  had  represented  to  the  English  that  at 
some  former  time  they  had  conquered  all  the  way  to  the 
Mississippi  on  the  north  of  the  Ohio,  and  on  the  basis  of 
this  figment  of  imperialism  they  had  made  over  that  region 
to  the  English  for  "  milk,"  tobacco,  and  other  luxuries  of 
civilization.  The  dwellers  in  the  region  were  not  con- 
sulted, and  ignorance  of  any  conquest  such  as  the  Six 
Nations  alleged  was  universal  among  them. 

The  French,  on  their  part,  alleged  discovery  and  occu- 
pation. Father  Marquette,  one  of  the  heroic  characters 
of  missionary  exploration,  had  come  to  Canada  in  1666; 
had  founded  a  mission  at  the  eastern  end  of  Lake  Superior ; 
had  gone  the  next  year  to  the  Hurons  and  Ottawas ;  upon 
their  break-up  under  Sioux  attack,  had  accompanied  the 
Hurons  to  Mackinaw  and  established  there  a  mission  with 
a  chapel ;  and,  on  hearing  here  of  the  great  river  in  the 
West,  had,  in  1669,  prepared  to  go  in  search  of  it.     Pend- 


128  WASHINGTON. 

ing  the  execution  of  this  purpose,  orders  came  to  him  to 
join  a  younger  explorer,  of  Canadian  birth,  Louis  JoHet, 
in  a  thorough  exploration  of  the  whole  course  of  the 
unknown  stream. 

The  two  explorers,  with  five  companions,  set  ofif  in  May 
in  two  canoes,  their  course  being  by  way  of  Green  Bay, 
Fox  river,  and  a  portage,  to  the  Wisconsin  river,  and  down 
that  stream  to  its  mouth  —  thus  entering  the  Mississippi 
June  17,  1673.  Near  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  as  they  went 
south,  savages  told  them  that  a  ten  days'  journey  would 
bring  them  to  the  sea ;  and  upon  reaching  the  mouth  of 
the  Arkansas  it  was  evident  to  them  that  the  stream  led 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  that  its  lower  course  might 
bring  them  within  reach  of  Spanish  capture.  Here,  there- 
fore, having  made  a  journey  of  2,500  miles,  they  returned 
up  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois,  and,  pass- 
ing up  that  river,  reached  Green  Bay  in  September.  After 
detention  there  by  sickness  for  a  year,  Marquette  set  out 
on  a  journey  to  Kaskaskia,  on  the  river  of  that  name  in  the 
IlHnois  country,  five  miles  above  its  mouth  and  only  two 
miles  from  the  Mississippi, —  one  of  the  six  Illinois  points 
where  the  French  built  up  settlements.  Marquette's  jour- 
ney to  this  point  was  interrupted  by  his  infirmities  and 
the  severe  December  cold,  at  the  portage  on  the  Chicago ; 
and  only  after  staying  there  over  the  winter  was  he  able 
to  go  on  at  the  close  of  March,  1675,  ^^^  reach  Kaskaskia 
in  April.  Erecting  a  chapel  and  celebrating  Easter  in  it, 
the  now  infirm,  worn-out  explorer  set  out  to  return  to 
Mackinaw,  but  having  gone  so  far  as  the  passage  across 
Lake  Michigan,  to  the  mouth  of  a  small  stream,  which 
later  bore  his  name,  his  rest  on  a  bed  of  leaves  in  the 
shadow  of  forest  trees  was  the  end,  May  18,  1675. 

In  1680  Father  Hennepin  explored  the  Mississippi  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  and 


WASHINGTON    ON   HIS   MISSION    TO    THE    OHIO. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  129 

in  1682,  La  Salle,  who  had  come  to  Canada  as  an  ad- 
venturer m  1666,  made  a  journey  covering  the  Mississippi 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  La 
Salle  had  in  August,  1679,  sailed  with  De  Tonti,  a  vet- 
eran Italian,  through  the  chain  of  lakes  to  Green  Bay,  in 
the  northwestern  part  of  Lake  Michigan;  and  had  gone 
thence  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  at  the  south- 
eastern part  of  the  lake,  and  established  there  a  trading 
post,  which  he  called  Fort  Miami.  From  this  point  he 
went  up  the  St.  Joseph,  crossed  over  to  the  Kankakee, 
paddled  down  that  stream  until  he  reached  an  Illinois 
Indian  village,  and  attempted  the  establishment  of  a  trad- 
ing post,  in  January,  1680,  on  the  site  of  the  present 
Peoria,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  Fort  Crevecoeur.  After 
putting  De  Tonti  in  charge  of  the  fort,  and  having  dis- 
patched Hennepin  to  explore  the  Illinois  and  the  Missis- 
sippi northward.  La  Salle  started  back  for  Canada,  crossed 
Michigan  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  to  a  stream 
flowing  into  the  Detroit,  and,  passing  thence  overland  to 
Lake  Erie,  navigated  that  lake  to  Niagara  in  a  canoe,  and 
organized  a  party  of  twenty-three  Frenchmen  and  eigh- 
teen New  England  Indians  for  a  journey  with  supplies  to 
Fort  Crevecoeur. 

An  attack  by  the  Iroquois  on  the  Illinois  settlement  had 
compelled  De  Tonti  to  abandon  the  fort  and  return  to 
Green  Bay.  La  Salle  conducted  his  party  by  way  of  Fort 
Miami,  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph,  along  the  southern 
coast  of  Lake  Michigan,  through  the  Chicago  river  and 
across  the  Illinois,  and  thence  down  that  stream  to  the 
Mississippi.  Descending  the  Mississippi  to  its  separation 
into  three  channels.  La  Salle  explored  these  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  De  Tonti  conducting  the  exploration  of  the 
great  middle  channel.  At  a  suitable  spot  near  the  Gulf, 
a  cross  and  a  column  were  set  up  with  the  inscription, 
9 


130  WASHINGTON. 

"  Louis  the  Great,  King  of  France  and  Navarre,  April  9, 
1682,"  and  La  Salle  proclaimed  the  whole  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  region  of  its  tributaries  as  a  part  of 
the  dominion  of  France,  with  the  name  Louisiana. 

The  next  year  La  Salle  ascended  the  Mississippi,  re- 
turned to  Quebec  in  November,  went  to  France,  and  pro- 
posed to  the  King's  government  that  a  settlement  be  made 
on  the  lower  Mississippi  and  that  steps  be  taken  to  secure 
to  France  the  rich  mining  country  in  northern  Mexico. 
A  patent  was  granted,  making  La  Salle  commandant  of 
the  region  from  the  present  State  of  Illinois  to  Mexico 
and  westward  indefinitely.     Four  ships,  with  Beaujeu  as 
navigator,  sailed  August  i,  1684,  with  a  company  of  280 
persons,  but  through  the  miscalculations  of  Beaujeu  and 
his  stupid  insistence  on  his  own  views  against  La  Salle's 
better  knowledge,  the  fleet  got  as  far  beyond  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi  as  the  entrance  to  Matagorda  Bay,  and 
with  the  wreck  there  of  the  storeship  on  which  most  of 
the   supplies  were,  the   debarkation  of  the  colonists,   of 
whom  not  a  few  were  characters  more  fit  for  a  prison  than 
a  plantation,  was  followed  by  Beaujeu's  desertion,  leaving 
only  a  small  ship.     The  efforts  of  La  Salle  to  begin  agri- 
culture and  trade,  after  the  erection  of  a  fort,  were  de- 
feated by  the  hostility  of  the  Indians,  and  with  what  set- 
tlers were  killed,  and  many  perishing  by  disease,  less  than 
forty  souls  were  left  at  the  end  of  the  first  year.     Half  of 
these,  including  women  and  children.  La  Salle  left  at  the 
beginning  of  1688,  while,  with  his  brother,  two  nephews, 
and  thirteen  others,  he  set  off  to  make  his  way  through 
what  is  now  Texas  to  the  Illinois.     A  revolt,  however, 
breaking  out  very  soon,  two  of  the  ringleaders  stealthily 
murdered    one    of    the    explorer's    nephews,    and    when 
La  Salle  turned  back  to  look  for  him  he  also  was  treach- 
erously killed,  March  20,  1688.     The  remnant  of  the  col- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  131 

ony  were  either  massacred  by  the  Indians  or  made  prison- 
ers by  Spaniards  sent  to- drive  out  the  French. 

The  successor  to  La  Salle  in  French  occupation  was 
Jean  Baptiste  Le  Moyne  Bienville,  a  brother  of  Le  Moyne 
Iberville,  who  founded  a  French  settlement  at  Biloxi,  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  in  1698.  Sauville,  another 
brother,  was  appointed  Governor  of  Louisiana  in  1699, 
and  the  next  year  Bienville  constructed  a  fort  fifty-four 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  death  of  Sau- 
ville in  1701  left  Bienville  in  charge  of  the  colony,  and  he 
settled  the  seat  of  government  at  Mobile,  and  soon  after 
was  joined  by  his  brother  Chateaugay,  with  seventeen  set- 
tlers from  France.  A  further  instalment  of  settlers  ar- 
rived a  little  later,  a  score  of  young  women  as  wives  for 
colonists.  Bienville  was  superseded  as  Governor  by 
Cadillac  in  1713,  and  the  latter  by  Epinay  in  1717.  The 
next  year  Bienville  founded  New  Orleans,  and  upon  war 
breaking  out  between  France  and  Spain  he  seized  Pensa- 
cola  and  put  his  brother  Chateaugay  in  command  there. 
From  1724  to  1733  Bienville  was  in  France,  and  then  for 
ten  years  he  was  again  Governor  of  Louisiana. 

At  the  date  of  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  (1713),  which  se- 
cured an  enlargement  of  the  conceded  colonial  claims  of 
England  (against  the  French)  in  America,  there  were  not 
over  500  Europeans  in  the  whole  region  from  the  Illinois 
to  the  Gulf.  Immediately  after  the  treaty  the  King  of 
France  granted  proprietary  rights  in  all  the  territories 
watered  by  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries  below  the 
mouth  of  the  Illinois  to  Antoine  Crozat,  and  it  was  Crozat 
who  sent  out  Cadillac  as  Governor.  Matters  went  badly, 
and  Crozat  got  rid  of  his  interest  to  the  celebrated  specu- 
lative financier,  John  Law,  who  worked  the  disastrous 
Mississippi  scheme  with  Bienville  (as  stated  above)  as 
Governor.     After  the  founding  of  New  Orleans,  in  1718, 


132  WASHINGTON. 

seven  vessels  came  the  same  year  with  stores  and  about 
1,500  emigrants;  and  the  next  year  eleven  vessels,  in- 
cluding an  importation  of  500  negroes  from  the  Guinea 
coast.  In  1 72 1  the  arrivals  were  1,000  white  settlers  and 
1,367  slaves.  This  was  in  the  year  following  the  bursting 
of  Law's  financial  bubble,  but  the  misfortunes  incident  to 
that  failed  to  check  the  prosperity  of  the  colony. 

In  1732  the  grant  came  to  an  end,  and  the  province  re- 
verted to  the  crown.  There  were  at  that  time  not  less  than 
4,000  white  colonists  and  2,000  slaves.  By  a  secret  treaty 
in  1762,  made  pubHc  a  year  and  a  half  later,  and  its  pro- 
visions carried  into  effect  in  1769,  France  transferred 
Louisiana  to  Spain.  Meanwhile,  by  a  treaty  made  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1763,  Louisiana  east  of  the  Mississippi,  from  the 
sources  of  that  river  to  the  sea,  was  ceded  to  Great  Brit- 
ain, the  line,  however,  to  the  sea  passing  along  the  middle 
of  the  Iberville  river  through  the  lakes  Maurepas  and  Pont- 
chartrain,  thus  leaving  out  all  of  what  is  now  Louisiana 
except  the  very  small  part  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north 
of  the  Iberville  and  lakes  line.  This  was  after  the  war  of 
seven  years'  duration  which  we  see  Washington  at  the 
beginning  of  in  1754,  and  which  closed  with  the  French 
surrender  of  Montreal  and  of  all  Canada,  September  8, 
1760.  It  seems  pretty  evident  that  France  had,  before 
1754,  carried  on  exploration  and  settlement,  from  the  lakes 
through  the  Illinois  river  prairies  and  down  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi,  which  would  have  warranted  insisting 
that  English  claims  beyond  the  Alleghanies  leave  her  what 
is  now  Michigan  and  Illinois,  and  the  line  of  the  Missis- 
sippi to  the  Gulf;  and  had  French  operations  kept  those 
limits  there  would  have  gone  on  peaceful  developments 
carrying  French-Canadian  power  from  tEe  east  end  of 
Lake  Erie  across  the  Michigan  and  Illinois  lands,  and 
down  to  the  Gulf  without  the  slightest  occasion  for  con- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  133 

flict  with  England  on  the  Ohio.  But  when  France,  car- 
rying a  purely  nominal  claim  up  stream  along  a  tributary 
of  the  reach  and  territorial  sweep  of  the  OlTio,  without 
action  of  any  sort  in  pursuance  of  her  claim,"  made  the 
natural  course  of  English  advance  of  colonial  occupation 
westward  an  occasion  for  purely  military  descent  from 
Canada,  with  no  pretense  of  colonization  purposes,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  with  attempts  to  rouse  the  savages  against 
English  colonization,  there  was  a  face  of  impudence  and 
wickedness  m  it,  the  smashing  of  which,  begun  by  Wash- 
ington and  finished  seven  years  later  at  Montreal,  was 
richly  deserved.  The  claim  of  France  across  Michigan 
and  Illinois,  and  on  the  immediate  banks  of  the  Mississippi 
to  its  mouth,  may  have  been  of  the  best  in  every  respect, 
and  its  maintenance  might  have  resulted  in  a  French 
America  carried  to  the  Pacific,  with  English  extension 
nowhere  reaching  to  the  Mississippi,  yet  the  rascal  outrage 
of  appearing  in  arms  on  the  upper  Ohio,  against  English 
colonization  begun  by  the  Ohio  Company,  and  with 
"  milk  "  and  tobacco  to  buy  Indian  massacre  service,  was 
not  only  criminal  to  the  last  degree,  but  a  blunder  of  the 
worst  sort.  French  mission,  exploration,  and  coloniza- 
tion plans  may  stand  forever  to  her  credit,  and  pursued 
on  lines  of  justice  and  wisdom  they  might  have  made 
North  America  predominantly  French,  but  French  mili- 
tary attack  upon  English  colonization,  and  appeal  to  the 
murdering  savages  to  help  carry  on  a  war  of  desolation, 
can  only  come  to  judgment  as  of  that  madness  sent  by 
the  gods  upon  those  whose  steps  take  hold  on  destruction. 
If  now  we  turn  to  England's  historic  claim,  in  contrast 
with  that  of  France,  it  is  not  writing  history  to  take  any 
notice  of  so  slight  and  so  recent  a  matter  as  some  trumpery 
dealing  with  the  Indians  south  of  Ontario,  or  with  any 


134  WASHINGTON. 

such  aboriginal  occupiers,  never  more  than  human  vermin 
infesting  lands  which  they  not  only  could  not  in  any  re- 
spectable sense  occupy,  but  which  they  made  the  stamp- 
ing ground  of  filthy  carousal  and  fearful  massacre  nearer 
the  level  of  incarnate  devils  than  of  creatures  fit  to  be 
dealt  with  as  human.  The  history  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned is  that  of  Washington  as  a  scion  of  England,  and 
of  England  making  armed  contest  for  continental  sway ; 
and  the  necessary  background  lies  in  that  past  to  which 
Washington  and  Virginia,  Washington  and  England  in 
America,  were  the  sequel.  The  hero  of  our  narrative  is 
on  the  way  to  become,  on  the  top  of  the  world,  the  great- 
est figure  of  the  English  race,  and  to  note  the  Enes  which 
meet  in  him  we  must  look  back  to  the  times,  the  scenes, 
and  the  historical  figures,  which  made  Washington  and 
his  career  possible. 

The  Fourth  of  July,  which  we  celebrate  as  Independence 
Day,  ought  to  be  no  less  celebrated  as  Discovery  Day  for 
America.  It  is  the  anniversary  of  the  discovery  which 
resulted  in  an  EngHsh  North  America. 

John  Cabot,  of  Genoa  by  birth,  and  later  of  Venice,  had 
become  an  Englishman  by  residence  in  the  last  half  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  at  Bristol,  on  the  Avon,  near  the  head 
of  Bristol  Channel  —  the  great  southwestern  Seagate  to 
England. 

It  was  in  1496,  on  the  5th  of  March,  that  Henry  VII  of 
England,  in  the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign,  granted  to  John 
Cabot  and  his  sons  a  patent  empowering  them  to  seek  out, 
subdue,  and  occupy,  at  their  own  charges,  any  regions 
which  before  had  "  been  unknown  to  all  Christians."  And 
under  this  patent  the  Cabots  sailed,  on  the  26.  of  May  of 
the  next  year,  1497,  to  attempt  discovery  in  tlie  far  west 
of  the  North  Atlantic.     A  record  not  long  since  brought 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  ^35 

to  light  at  Bristol,  made  this  reference  to  the  voyage  of 
the  Cabots  across  the  North  Atlantic: 

"  This  year,  1497,  on  St.  John  the  Baptist's  Day  (June 
24,  old  style,  now  July  4),  the  land  of  America  was  found 
by  the  merchants  of  Bristowe  (Bristol ;  Brigstow  or  Bridge- 
place,  Bristow)  in  a  ship  of  Bristol  called  the  Matthew, 
the  which  said  ship  departed  from  the  port  of  Bristowe 
the  2d  of  May  and  came  home  again  6th  August  following." 

A  royal  privy  purse  record  of  August  10,  1497, — "  To 
him  that  found  the  New  Isle,  iio," — appears  to  show, 
when  taken  in  connection  with  other  records,  that  the 
head  of  the  expedition,  John  Cabot,,  was  awarded  iio,  on 
his  return  from  discovering  some  island  like  Newfound- 
land. The  terms  of  a  second  patent  show  that  the  main- 
land as  well  as  the  island  had  been  discovered.  This  sec- 
ond patent,  dated  February  3,  1498,  authorized  John  Cabot 
to  take  six  English  ships,  "  and  them  convey  and  lede  to 
the  Land  and  Isles  of  late  found  by  the  said  John  in  oure 
name  and  by  oure  commandment." 

Exactly  what  the  discovery  thus  referred  to  was  we  may 
see  from  an  early  notice,  which  said : 

"  In  the  year  of  our  Lord  1497,  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian, 
and  his  son  Sebastian,  discovered  that  country  which  no 
one  before  his  time  had  ventured  to  approach,  on  the  24th 
of  June,  about  5  o'clock  in  the  morning.  He  called  the 
land  Terra  primum  visa,  because,  as  I  conjecture,  this  was 
the  place  that  first  met  his  eye  in  looking  from  the  sea. 
On  the  contrary,  the  island  which  lies  opposite  the  land 
he  called  the  island  of  St.  John, —  as  I  suppose  because  it 
was  discovered  on  the  festival  of  St.  John  the  Baptist." 

The  common  tradition  has  been  that  a  second  expedition 
set  sail  from  Bristol  in  May,  1498,  and  after  searching  the 
coast  of  the  new  land  far  to  the  north  turned  about  and 
followed  the  coast  south  for  some  1,800  miles,  or  down 


136  WASHINGTON. 

past  the  New  England  of  a  future  day  to  what  we  know  as 
Virginia;  and  that  thus  a  large  discovery  of  continental 
land  to  the  west  of  the  North  Atlantic  was  made  by  Cabot 
on  his  two  voyages.  Both  of  these  voyages  had  been 
made  before  Columbus  had  anywhere  discovered  any  part 
of  the  continental  mainland.  To  a  date  as  late  as  August, 
1498,  Columbus  had  not  found  any  land  except  islands. 
And  when,  August  i,  1498,  he  saw  land,  near  the  mouths 
of  the  Orinoco  river  in  South  America,  he  raised  the  ques- 
tion whether  it  was  a  continental  mainland  and  a  new 
world,  and  very  confidently  decided  that  it  was  not.  At 
a  later  date  he  again  saw  a  point  of  the  coast  of  the  con- 
tinent, and  he  took  this  also  to  be  the  coast  of  an  island ; 
and  at  his  death  he  was  entirely  unconscious  that  he  had 
seen  anything  but  the  islands  which  he  so  falsely  claimed 
to  be  "  the  Isles  of  India  beyond  the  Ganges,"  and  upon 
which  he  fixed  the  wholly  false  name  of  "  West  Indies." 

The  questions  of  history  which  arise  in  this  connection 
are  conclusively  deaU  with  in  an  admirable  study  recently 
published  by  Henry  Harrisse,  an  elegant  volume  of  500 
pages,  the  title  of  which  we  give  below.*  The  volume  is 
notable,  not  only  for  the  justice  of  recognition  which  it 
gives  to  John  Cabot  as  alone  the  discoverer  of  North 
America,  but  for  the  justice  of  exposure  of  the  free-and- 
easy  mendacity  of  the  son,  Sebastian,  in  pretending  to  have 
been  himself  the  author  of  what  was  accomplished  entirely 
without  him  by  his  father.  Harrisse's  own  summary  of 
the  situation,  as  he  finds  it  through  researches  that  leave 
nothing  to  be  desired,  is  as  follows : 

"  In  the  year  1497  a  Venetian  citizen,  called  Giovanni 

*  "  John  Cabot,  the  Discoverer  of  North  America,  and  Sebastian 
his  Son.  A  chapter  of  the  Maritime  History  of  England  under 
the  Tudors,  1496-1557."  By  Henry  Harrisse.  London:  Benjamin 
Franklin  Stevens.    New  York:     Dodd,  Mead  &  Co.    $7.50. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  137 

Caboto,  having  obtained  letters-patent  from  Henry  VII 
the  year  previous  for  a  voyage  of  discovery,  crossed  the 
Atlantic  ocean,  and,  under  the  British  flag,  discovered  the 
continent  of  North  America. 

"  In  1498,  he  fitted  out,  in  Bristol,  a  new  expedition, 
and  again  sailed  westward;  but  scarcely  anything  further 
is  known  of  that  enterprise." 

Who  was  John  Cabot?  He  is  commonly  said  to  have 
been  a  Venetian  settled  at  Bristol  in  England ;  and  his  son 
Sebastian  is  often  said  to  have  been  an  Englishman  by 
virtue  of  birth  in  England.  Harrisse  shows  conclusively 
that  John  Cabot  was,  like  Columbus,  a  Genoese;  that  he 
was  naturaHzed  in  Venice  under  a  provision  permitting 
this  to  one  who  had  been  a  resident  in  Venice  for  fifteen 
years;  and  that  Sebastian  was  born,  not  in  England,  but 
in  Venice.  Harrisse  further  expresses  his  belief  that  John 
Cabot  removed  with  his  entire  family  to  England  in  1490; 
that  Sebastian,  when  he  first  came  to  England,  was  a  lad 
of  about  sixteen;  and  that  when  the  elder  Cabot  under- 
took his  memorable  voyage  of  1497,  he  was  forty-six  years 
of  age,  and  his  son,  Sebastian  (left  at  home),  was  about 
twenty-three.  Harrisse  thinks  it  not  unlikely  that  the 
Cabots  came  from  Venice  to  London. 

Bristol  was  known  to  Columbus  in  1477  ^s  a  port  from 
which  bold  expeditions  were  sent  forth  on  the  Atlantic 
to  the  north  and  west.  To  all  appearance,  as  the  facts  are 
given  by  Harrisse,  John  Cabot's  ideas  may  have  antedated 
the  first  voyage  of  Columbus.  It  was  as  early  as  1474, 
when  John  Cabot  was  still  a  resident  of  Venice,  that  Tos- 
canelli,  upon  whose  suggestions  Columbus  acted,  was  ad- 
vocating the  project  of  reaching  Asia  by  sailing  constantly 
westward.  Evidence  exists  that  Toscanelli's  notions  with 
regard  to  lands  across  the  Atlantic  were  pretty  well  cur- 
rent in  Italy,  and  as  likely  to  have  been  known  to  Cabot 


138  WASHINGTON. 

as  to  Columbus.  The  statement  commonly  made  that 
John  Cabot  conceived  the  notion  of  a  voyage  of  discovery 
upon  hearing  of  the  success  of  the  first  voyage  of  Colum- 
bus, is  a  statement  of  Sebastian,  intrinsically  more  likely 
to  be  false  than  to  be  true.  A  trustworthy  testimony  is 
to  the  effect  that  John  Cabot  related,  in  speaking  of  his 
first  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  that  when  he  was  at  Mecca, 
in  Arabia,  he  inquired  from  the  caravans  which  brought 
spice  to  Europe  whence  the  article  came,  and  that  in  con- 
sequence of  his  belief  in  the  sphericity  of  the  earth,  he  in- 
ferred from  their  reply  that  it  came  from  a  land  which  lay 
to  the  west,  and  that  the  project  of  his  voyage  was  based 
on  the  expectation  of  finding  a  shorter  route  to  Cathay, 
by  sailing  west.  Harrisse  quotes  a  dispatch  from  Lon- 
don of  July  25,  1498,  by  Pedro  de  Ayala,  which  said: 
"  For  the  last  seven  years  Bristol  people  have  sent  out 
every  year  two,  three,  or  four  caravels  in  search  of  the 
island  of  Brazil  and  the  Seven  Cities,  according  to  the 
fancy  of  this  Genoese."  That  the  Genoese  referred  to  was 
not  Columbus,  and  must  have  been  John  Cabot,  is  shown 
by  another  part  of  the  dispatch,  in  which  Ayala  said :  "  I 
have  seen  the  map  which  was  made  by  the  discoverer,  who 
is  another  Genoese  Hke  Columbus."  When  Ayala  wrote 
this  dispatch  nearly  a  year  had  elapsed  from  John  Cabot's 
return  from  his  voyage  of  discovery,  and  manifestly  the 
reference  was  to  him.  Harrisse  remarks  in  view  of  this 
reference  to  what  the  people  of  Bristol  had  been  engaged 
in  through  the  suggestion  of  John  Cabot: 

"  Efiforts  of  the  kind  were  not  unfrequent  in  those  days. 
We  have  cited  in  another  work  authentic  documents  re- 
ferring to  eighteen  similar  enterprises,  projected  or  at- 
tempted, between  the  years  1431  and  1492;  that  is,  an- 
terior to  the  memorable  voyage  of  Columbus.  Ayala  re- 
fers to  attempts  of  this  kind  annually  renewed,  and  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  139 

which  the  expedition  sent  out  from  Bristol  by  John  Jay, 
Jr.,  in  July,  1480,  under  the  command  of  Thomas  Lloyd, 
gives  us  a  pretty  clear  idea.  John  Cabot  doubtless  ad- 
vised, and  may  even  have  laid  out  plans  for  such  voyages 
of  discovery  between  1490,  which  we  suppose  to  be  the 
date  of  his  first  coming  to  England  to  settle,  and  the  close 
of  1495,  when  he  submitted  his  plans  to  Henry  VII.  Be- 
lief in  the  existence  of  the  island  of  Brazil  and  of  a  great 
island  called  Antilla,  or  the  Seven  Cities,  had  existed  be- 
fore the  time  of  Columbus,  and  had  led  to  voyages  west- 
ward from  Ireland  earlier  than  the  time  of  the  Cabots." 

It  is  more  than  probable,  therefore,  that  the  only  service 
rendered  to  English  exploration  by  the  report  of  islands 
reached  by  Columbus  was  that  of  making  it  easier  to  se- 
cure the  ear  of  the  English  monarch. 

When  Henry  VII  granted  the  petition  of  John  Cabot, 
who  probably  inserted  the  names  of  his  sons  with  a  view 
to  their  inheritance  of  the  interest  and  to  any  future  prose- 
cution of  it  which  might  be  made  by  them,  they  were  au- 
thorized, ''  upon  their  own  proper  costs  and  charges,  to 
seek  out,  discover,  and  find  whatsoever  isles,  countries, 
regions,  or  provinces  of  the  heathens  or  infidels,  whatso- 
ever they  be,  and  in  what  part  of  the  world  soever  they 
be,  which  before  this  time  have  been  unknown  to  all 
Christians." 

Although  authorized  so  early  as  March  5,  1496,  the  ex- 
pedition did  not  sail  until  May  of  1497,  about  the  middle 
of  the  month,  Harrisse  thinks,  and  consisted  of  but  "  one 
small  ship,  manned  by  eighteen  men." 

We  hear  nothing  of  any  terrors  of  the  unknown  Atlantic 
preventing  the  bold  venture  of  a  voyage  with  so  small  a 
craft  and  a  crew  so  few  in  number.  For  more  than  500 
years  the  path  of  the  sea  from  Ireland  west  to  whatever 
might  be  beyond  had  been  more  or  less  open,  and  the 


140  WASHINGTON. 

expedition  under  John  Cabot,  small  as  it  was,  was  no 
more  than  average  English  courage  was  equal  to.  Cabot, 
proceeding  to  the  west  coast  of  Ireland,  sailed  toward  the 
north  and  then  west,  until  a  mainland  was  reached,  where 
the  country  was  fine  and  temperate ;  where  the  sea  along 
the  shore  was  filled  with  fishes;  where  the  inhabitants 
used  snares  to  catch  game  and  needles  for  making  nets; 
where  the  tides  were  slack  and  did  not  rise  as  in  England ; 
and  returning  from  which  were  seen  two  very  large  and 
fertile  islands.  To  Harrisse  these  points  of  description 
imply  Labrador  inhabited  by  the  Eskimo,  in  perhaps  the 
vicinity  of  Cape  Chudleigh;  and  further  Harrisse  says, 
referring  to  what  John  Cabot  reported : 

"  It  is  evident  that  the  Venetian  adventurer  and  his 
companions  were  greatly  struck  with  the  enormous  quan- 
tity of  fish  which  they  found  in  that  region.  It  surpassed 
anything  of  the  kind  they  had  ever  seen,  even  in  the  Ice- 
landic sea,  where  cod  was  then  marvelously  plentiful.  He 
dwells  at  length  and  with  evident  complacency  on  that 
fortunate  peculiarity, — '  that  sea  is  covered  with  fishes, 
which  are  taken  not  only  with  the  net,  but  also  with  a 
basket,  in  which  a  stone  is  put  so  that  the  basket  may 
plunge  into  water.  They  say  that  they  will  bring  thence 
such  a  quantity  of  fish  that  England  will  have  no  further 
need  of  Iceland,  from  which  a  very  great  commerce  of 
fish  called  stockfish  is  brought."  It  is  clear  that  the  exist- 
ence of  vast  quantities  of  cod  is  a  circumstance  which  is 
applicable  to  the  entire  transatlantic  coast  north  of  New 
England.  Yet,  however  plentiful  that  species  of  fish  may 
be  on  the  banks  of  Newfoundland,  the  quantity  is  sur- 
passed near  the  entrance  of  Hudson's  strait.  Modern  ex- 
plorers report  that  there  cod  and  salmon  '  form  in  many 
places  a  living  mass,  a  vast  ocean  of  living  slime,  which 
accumulates  on  the  banks  of  northern  Labrador ; '  and  the 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  141 

spot  noted  for  its  '  amazing  quantity  of  fish '  is  the  vicinity 
of  Cape  Chudleigh,  which  the  above  details  and  other  rea- 
sons seem  to  indicate  as  the  place  visited  by  John  Cabot 
in  1497." 

The  mention  of  the  enormous  amount,  the  immense 
mass  of  codfish  in  the  sea,  is  of  very  special  significance. 
This  feature  of  the  North  Atlantic,  clear  across  from  the 
north  of  Scotland  to  Labrador,  may  be  said  to  have  deter- 
mined the  progress  of  sailing  west,  first  far  out  into  the 
Atlantic,  then  to  Iceland,  then  from  Iceland  to  Greenland, 
and  thence  to  Labrador.  For  hundreds  of  years  before 
Columbus  the  cod  in  the  sea  had  paved  the  way  from  the 
west  coast  of  Ireland  to  the  codfish  coast  of  America. 
They  tempted  and  trained  the  hardy  fishermen  to  bold 
voyaging,  until  the  bold  voyaging,  by  chance  of  the  storms 
and  stress  of  weather,  carried  involuntary  explorers  as  far 
as  Iceland. 

A  very  interesting  paper  was  recently  presented  to  the 
Viking  Club  of  London  setting  forth  facts  going  to  show 
that  the  original  ancient  "  Thule ''  was  Iceland ;  that  the 
name  was  given  by  Celtic  settlers  from  the  British  Isles; 
and  that  the  meaning  of  the  name  was  "  Isle  of  the  Sun," 
or  island  where  the  sun  does  not  go  down.  When  the 
Scandinavians  first  discovered  Iceland,  about  A.  D.  850, 
it  had  been  colonized  long  before,  to  some  small  extent 
at  least,  by  Irish  monks,  who,  observing  how  the  sun  re- 
mained above  the  horizon,  even  at  midnight,  naturally 
gave  it  a  name  which  meant  Sun-Land.  At  least  700 
years  before  Columbus,  adventurers  by  sea  from  the  coast 
of  Ireland,  to  whom  fishing  for  cod  had  made  familiar  the 
perils  of  the  deep,  were  accustomed  to  strike  boldly  out 
into  the  Atlantic  with  small  regard  to  what  might  be 
before  them,  and  whether  making  long  voyages  delib- 
erately or  being  driven  far  away  in  spite  of  themselves,  they 


142  WASHINGTON, 

ultimately  made  the  distance  from  Great  Britain  to  Ice- 
land and  later  that  from  Iceland  to  Greenland,  not  to 
speak  of  the  further  step  from  Greenland  to  Labrador. 
The  distance  from  the  north  of  Scotland  to  Iceland  is  500 
miles;  that  from  Norway  to  Iceland  is  600  miles.  The 
greatest  length  of  Iceland  from  east  to  west  is  300  miles, 
and  from  the  west  coast  of  Iceland  to  Greenland  is  250 
miles.  Greenland  is  continental  in  extent,  but  it  comes 
to  a  point  in  the  south,  and  this  point  about  breaks  in  the 
middle  the  sea  passage  from  Iceland  to  Labrador. 
Through  the  entire  sea  from  Norway  to  Labrador  the  cod 
have  been  a  bridge  from  the  old  world  to  the  new. 

Beyond  a  doubt  the  codfish  made  the  destiny  of  North 
America.  The  day  of  discovery,  in  which  both  the  United 
States  and  British  America  are  alike  interested,  ought  to 
be  celebrated  within  all  the  metes  and  bounds  of  the  con- 
tinent, from  the  Arctic  coasts  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  with  a  festival  of  codfish. 
The  cod  in  the  sea  were  the  stepping-stones  by  which 
Irish  adventure  and  English  enterprise  made  the  trans- 
atlantic passage  to  the  possession  of  the  northern  conti- 
nent of  the  new  world. 

That  Cabot  was  back  in  England  early  in  August  is 
proven  by  the  fact  of  an  official  record  of  August  10,  1497, 
showing  that  Henry  VII  gave  £10  as  a  reward  "  to  hym 
that  founde  the  new  isle."  What  John  Cabot  actually 
found,  however,  is  more  accurately  mentioned  in  the  new 
letters-patent  given  him  by  Henry  VII  February  3,  1498, 
and  authorizing  him  "  to  take  at  his  pleasure  VI  Englisshe 
shippes  and  them  convey  and  lede  to  the  Londe  and  Isles 
of  late  founde  by  the  seid  John." 

For  his  second  expedition  Cabot  had  no  difficulty  in 
finding  men  to  accompany  him.  An  Italian,  writing  home 
from  England  at  the  time,  said :    "  He  can  enlist  as  many 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  143 

Englishmen  as  he  pleases  and  many  of  our  own  rascals 
besides."  Harrisse  says  :  **  There  is  no  ground  whatever 
for  the  assertion,  frequently  repeated,  that  John  Cabot  did 
not  command  this  second  expedition,  or  that  it  was  under- 
taken after  his  death  by  his  son.  The  name  of  Sebastian 
Cabot,  who  was  not  one  of  the  grantees  in  these  new 
letters-patent,  appears  for  the  first  time,  in  connection 
with  these  voyages,  in  Peter  Martyr's  account,  printed 
twenty  years  after  the  event,  and  taken  exclusively  from 
Sebastian's  own  lips,  which,  as  we  have  shown,  is  not  a 
recommendation." 

The  second  expedition  sailed  early  in  the  spring  of  1498, 
and  at  the  end  of  July  following  the  first  news  relative  to 
its  progress  was  received  in  England.  Harrisse  thinks 
that  the  fleet  sailed  later  than  April  i,  1498,  because  of 
a  record  which  shows  that  the  King  loaned  £30  on 
that  day  to  two  persons  who  were  "  going  to  the  New 
Isle."  The  only  direct  news  concerning  the  expedition 
after  it  left  Bristol  is  a  statement  by  Pedro  de  Ayala  in  a 
dispatch  of  July  25,  1498,  that  "  News  has  been  received 
of  the  fleet  of  five  ships."  We  do  not  know  when  the  fleet 
returned  to  England,  nor  do  we  know  where  the  fleet  went, 
nor  what  discoveries  it  made,  nor  whether  John  Cabot 
survived  the  expedition.  Our  only  information  bearing 
upon  the  matter  is  that  one  of  the  men  who  borrowed 
money  of  the  King  for  "  going  to  the  New  Isle  "  repaid 
the  loan  in  London,  June  6,  1501. 

As  to  the  regions  visited  by  John  Cabot  in  the  course 
of  his  second  voyage  of  discovery,  we  can  only  form  an 
opinion  by  inference  from  what  appears  to  have  been 
known  a  little  later,  as  in  the  year  1501,  and  which  cannot 
have  been  known  except  through  John  Cabot's  discoveries. 
A  celebrated  map,  that  of  Juan  de  la  Cosa,  made  In  1500, 
indicates  points  discovered  by  the  English.     Harrisse  in- 


144  WASHINGTON. 

fers  that  the  northernmost  represent  those  noted  by  Cabot 
during  his  first  voyage,  and  that  those  further  south  nec- 
essarily indicate  the  discoveries  of  the  expedition  of  1498. 
In  this  view,  Cabot  must  have  reached  a  vicinity  south  of 
the  CaroHnas.  Harrisse  constructs  a  map  of  the  second 
voyage  of  John  Cabot,  which  indicates  that  he  sailed  south 
from  Newfoundland  past  Nova  Scotia  and  the  whole  At- 
lantic coast  to  Florida,  and  thence  took  his  course  back 
to  Bristol. 

A  point  of  great  interest  in  the  story  of  John  Cabot's 
discovery  of  North  America  is  the  question  of  the  month 
and  the  day  of  the  original  discovery  in  1497.  The  only 
report  which  we  have  makes  it  to  have  been  in  June  and 
on  the  24th  day  of  the  month,  which,  allowing  for  the 
difference  between  the  old  style  and  the  new  style,  would 
be  on  our  July  4th.  Unfortunately  the  report  comes  in- 
directly from  Sebastian  Cabot,  with  more  than  an  indica- 
tion of  its  doubtful  character.  Harrisse  discusses  the  facts 
and  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  date  June  24th  was 
invented  in  consequence  of  finding  the  name  of  St.  John 
existing  on  maps  of  that  region,  and  that  the  story  was 
told  that  the  name  was  given  because  the  spot  was  dis- 
covered on  St.  John's  Day,  June  24th ;  but  of  this  we  can- 
not have  an  approach  to  positive  knowledge,  and  one 
may  hesitate,  if  he  chooses,  to  give  up  the  date.  It  seems 
to  have  been  a  possible  date,  if  we  suppose  that  on  the 
first  voyage  only  a  very  limited  portion  of  the  coast  was 
visited,  and  in  the  entire  absence  of  decisive  evidence  it 
seems  not  unreasonable  to  continue  the  use  of  the  date 
and  to  let  July  4th  serve  as  the  anniversary  of  Cabot's 
original  discovery. 

It  is  customary  to  assume  that  the  voyages  of  Cabot 
were  a  result  of  the  voyage  of  Columbus;  that  he  broke 
the  ice  and  showed  the  way;  that  he,  first  in  time  and 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  145 

greatest  in  genius  and  courage,  set  forth  into  the  immense 
unknown  seas,  and  gave  the  impulse  by  which  all  others 
sailed ;  and  that  to  him,  because  of  a  supremely  great  initia- 
tion, belongs  the  comprehensive  honor  of  all  the  discover- 
ies by  which  a  new  world  was  added  to  the  old.  So  ram- 
pant everywhere  has  been  this  view  that  even  our  best 
historical  accounts  are  marred  by  it,  and  not  even  our 
best  authorities  get  the  facts  in  a  right  light. 

It  is  a  grotesquely  false  representation  on  wSich  all  the 
honoring  of  Columbus  and  of  Spain  has  proceeded,  to  the 
neglect  of  other  and  far  higher  claims.  It  is  not  so  much 
the  Norse  claims,  going  back  to  about  looo  A.  D.,  when 
the  whole  seaway  by  Iceland  and  Ga-eenland  to  whatever 
lay  beyond  was  familiar  to  many  adventurous  keels.  It 
is  far  more  the  claims  which  the  viking-ship  development 
of  a  later  time,  in  England  and  in  half-English  Portugal, 
presents ;  when  adventure  free  and  fearless  stood  not  upon 
royal  subsidies  and  patents  of  dominion,  and  had  no  de- 
sire to  plead  the  darkness  and  dread  disasters  of  the  seas 
in  apology  for  blasted  expectations.  There  had  been  500 
years  of  dauntless  breasting  of  all  seas  and  plunging  into 
unknown  deeps,  by  Saxon,  or  Celtic,  or  Norse  adventurers 
before  Columbus  mustered  a  trembling  courage  to  run 
before  a  favoring  wind  across  the  Atlantic. 

The  fact  is  that  ignorance  and  imagination  have  far  too 
much  shaped  the  popular  representation  of  Columbus. 
The  place  of  the  Genoese  sailor  in  the  great  age  of  dis- 
covery has  been  grossly  exaggerated.  He  is  in  reality 
the  fourth,  and  the  least  worthy,  of  the  four  heroes  of  dis- 
covery by  whose  lives  a  new  world  was  added  to  the  old 
world.  Before  him  and  above  him  were  Vespucius,  Cabot, 
and  Prince  Henry  of  Portugal,  known  for  immortal  honor 
as  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator. 

In  one  of  our  best  historical  handbooks  the  index  has 
10 


146  WASHINGTON. 

this  correct  word — "Columbus  discovered  the  West  In- 
dies " —  and  the  text  says  of  the  general  facts : 

"  Portugal  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  (or  about 
1400  A.  D. ;  it  was  in  fact  from  about  1418  or  1420,  seventy 
years  before  Columbus)  had  led  the  way  in  maritime  ad- 
venture, and  Portuguese  navigators  discovered  a  way  to 
India  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  [after  attempts  cov- 
ering the  whole  period  1433-1498].  Spain  was  anxious 
to  do  as  much,  and  in  1492  Columbus  had  discovered  the 
West  Indies." 

The  Portuguese  navigators,  trained  and  sent  forth  by 
Prince  Henry,  had  succeeded,  through  more  than  half  a 
century  of  daring  endeavor  (1433-1486),  in  sailing  down 
the  entire  west  coast  of  Africa  and  around  the  stormy  cape 
at  its  southern  extrem.ity,  six  years  before  Columbus  car- 
ried out  his  utterly  baseless  scheme  for  getting  to  India 
by  saiHng  west  on  the  South  Atlantic;  and  they  actually 
reached  India,  at  CaHcut  on  its  southwest  coast,  ten  days 
before  Columbus  set  sail  on  his.  third  voyage,  in  which 
he  first  saw  the  continental  mainland,  but  did  not  explore 
it  or  even  discover  what  it  was,  his  opinion  being  that  it 
was  not  a  new  continent  or  a  new  world. 

The  true  course  of  events  in  the  century  of  discovery, 
and  the  true  place  of  persons  in  it,  may  be  seen  from  these 
Britannica  passages ;  which  correctly  refer  the  great  start 
made  all  over  the  world,  not  to  Columbus  and  Spain,  but 
to  Portugal  and  the  great  Portuguese  initiator,  far  behind 
whom  came  the  Genoese  sailor : 

"In  the  fifteenth  century  the  time  was  approaching 
when  the  discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  almost 
indefinitely  to  widen  the  scope  of  geographical  enterprise. 
The  great  event  was  preceded  by  the  construction  of  the 
mariner's  compass.  Encouraged  by  the  possession  of  this 
sure  guide,  by  which,  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  he 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  147 

could  with  certainty  steer  his  course,  the  navigator  gradu- 
ally abandoned  the  method  of  sailing  along  the  shore,  and 
boldly  committed  his  bark  to  the  open  sea.  Navigation 
was  then  destined  to  make  rapid  progress.  The  growing 
spirit  of  enterprise,  combined  with  the  increasing  light  of 
science,  prepared  the  states  of  Europe  for  entering  upon 
that  great  career  of  discovery,  of  which  the  details  con- 
stitute the  materials  for  the  history  of  modern  geography. 

"  Portugal  took  the  lead  in  this  new  and  brilliant  path, 
and  foremost  in  the  front  rank  of  the  worthies  of  this  little 
hero-nation  stands  the  figure  of  Prince  Henry  the  Navi- 
gator. Until  his  day  the  pathways  of  the  human  race  had 
been  the  mountain,  the  river,  and  the  plain,  the  strait,  the 
lake,  and  the  inland  sea.  It  was  he  who  first  conceived 
the  thought  of  opening  a  road  through  the  unexplored 
ocean, —  a  road  replete  with  danger  but  abundant  with 
promise.  Prince  Henry,  born  March  4,  1394,  relinquished 
the  pleasures  of  the  court,  and  took  up  his  abode  on  the 
inhospitable  promontory  of  Sagres,  at  the  extreme  south- 
western angle  of  Europe.  To  find  the  seapath  to  the 
'  thesauris  Arabum  et  divitiis  Indies  '  was  the  object  to  which 
he  devoted  his  life.  He  collected  the  information  sup- 
plied by  ancient  geographers,  unweariedly  devoted  him- 
self to  the  study  of  navigation  and  cartography,  and  in- 
vited, with  princely  liberality  of  reward,  the  co-operation 
of  the  boldest  and  most  skilful  navigators  of  every 
country." 

The  sweep  of  Prince  Henry^s  early  work  to  the  west 
reached  a  thousand  miles  into  the  Atlantic  and  made  the 
Azores  and  the  Madeira  islands  integral  parts  of  Portugal. 
To  the  south,  down  the  coast  of  Africa,  to  and  beyond  the 
Canaries,  progress  was  very  slow,  but  the  efforts  of  Henry 
not  less  persistent  and  hopeful.  The  Mohammedan  re- 
ligion had  propagated  cowardly  terror  of  the  sea,  and  had 


-L48  WASHINGTON, 

impressed  this  on  the  ignorance  and  superstition  of  Christ- 
eTadom.  To  Prince  Henry  this  paralyzing  cowardice  was 
despicable,  and  in  1433  one  of  his  captains,  an  Englishman 
named  Giles  Jones,  or  Gil  Eannes,  carried  his  ship  past 
Cape  Bojador  on  the  African  coast,  where  the  dangers 
had  been  supposed  to  be  too  great  for  mortal  hazard. 

The  advance  southward  was  now  unsparingly  pressed, 
and  by  1446  more  than  fifty  caravels  had  reached  the 
Guinea  coast.  Prince  Henry  died  in  1460,  but  his  great 
work  did  not  die  with  him;  and  in  a  marvelous  voyage, 
lasting  from  August,  i486,  to  December,  1487,  Bartholo- 
mew Dias,  sailing  13,000  miles  with  two  little  fifty-ton 
craft,  went  storm-driven  far  beyond  the  south  end  of 
Africa,  and  thence  back  to  its  east  coast,  and  home  again 
by  rounding  the  cape,  named  by  him  Tormentoso. 

This  cape  of  storms,  where,  on  a  later  voyage,  the  same 
Dias  went  down  with  his  ship,  was  called  by  the  King  of 
Portugal  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  because  of  the  expecta- 
tion now  so  strong  of  reaching  India  by  that  way,  as 
Prince  Henry  had  planned  to  do.  It  was  because  of  wise 
plans  and  confident,  just  expectations,  so  long  patiently 
pursued,  that  Portugal  let  Columbus  turn  to  Spain  with 
his  crazy  dream  of  reaching  India  by  sailing  west. 

India  was  reached  by  the  Portuguese  navigator,  Vasco 
da  Gama,  in  a  voyage  lasting  from  July,  1497,  to  May, 

1498.  When  Da  Gama  got  back  to  Lisbon  in  August, 

1499,  another  expedition  was  sent,  a  fleet  of  thirteen  ships, 
commanded  by  Pedro  Alvarez  Cabral.  It  sailed  March 
9th  in  the  year  1500,  and  through  stress  of  Atlantic  storms 
was  carried  to  the  coast  of  the  great  southern  continent, 
across  the  Atlantic  from  Africa ;  and  on  the  22d  of  April, 
1500  A.  D.,  or  May  ist  by  new  style,  its  commander 
Cabral,  took  possession  for  Portugal  of  the  great  con- 
tinental mainland  which  we  know  as  Brazil. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  149 

It  was  a  discovery  which  belonged  in  the  course  of 
events  set  in  motion  by  Prince  Henry  eighty  years  before. 
It  would  have  been  made  exactly  the  same  if  Columbus 
had  never  sailed.  It  gave  the  first  news  to  Europe  of 
continental  regions  discovered  where  Columbus  had 
found  and  had  reported  only  islands. 

Cabral  sent  the  great  news  back  to  Portugal,  and  then 
turned  his  prows  toward  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  make 
his  voyage  to  India.  The  fleet  met  at  sea  an  expedition 
which  had  on  board  Amerigo  Vespucius,  and  which  fol- 
lowed up  Cabral's  discovery  with  prolonged  coastwise  ex- 
ploration of  the  new  continent.  Vespucius  got  from 
Cabral  news  of  the  finding  of  a  continent,  and,  after  amply 
verifying  it  by  prolonged  explorations,  he  made  a  report, 
in  which  he  told  how  a  "  new  world  "  had  been  discovered ; 
just  what  Columbus  might  have  done  fully  two  years  earlier 
if  he  had  not  been  too  §tupid  to  see  and  follow  up  the  real 
facts.  The  inevitable  result  followed.  Vespucius  was  the 
reporter  of  news  of  a  new  world,  and  because  he  got  a 
scoop  on  Columbus,  as  newspaper  men  say,  he  was  justly 
honored,  by  those  who  printed  the  news,  with  having  the 
new  world  called  Amerige,  or  America. 

It  was  thus  in  the  line  of  Prince  Henry,  and  not  in  the 
line  of  Columbus,  that  there  came  into  view  a  new  world. 
Prince  Henry  was  the  supreme  hero  of  the  age  of  discov- 
ery. The  mother  of  the  prince  was  Philippa  of  Lancaster, 
daughter  of  that  Duke  of  Lancaster,  son  to  Edward  III 
of  England,  who  was  at  one  time  the  patron  of  John 
Wyclif.  The  prince  was  thus  half  an  Englishman.  He 
was  one  of  the  finest  minds  and  fairest  characters  of  his 
time.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  had  won  European 
fame  as  a  soldier,  and  when  he  began  at  twenty-two  his 
matchless  devotion  to  science  as  a  means  of  human  prog- 
ress he  was  a  figure,  as  a  young  man,  hardly  paralleled  in 


150  WASHINGTON. 

history.  The  Britannica  article  devoted  to  him  (Vol.  XI, 
6y2),  says : 

"  Henry  Prince  of  Portugal,  surnamed  the  Navigator, 
to  whose  enlightened  foresight  and  perseverance  the  hu- 
man race  is  indebted  for  the  maritime  discovery,  within 
one  century,  of  more  than  half  of  the  globe,  was  born  at 
Oporto  on  the  4th  of  March,  1394.  Prince  Henry  and 
his  elder  brothers,  Duarte  and  Pedro,  were  sent  out  in 
141 5  on  an  expedition  against  the  important  Moorish  city 
of  Ceuta,  which,  after  much  hard  fighting,  they  succeeded 
in  taking  one  day.  Prince  Henry  pre-eminently  distin- 
guished himself  at  the  siege.  His  renown  after  this  be- 
came so  high  that  he  was  invited  severally  by  the  Pope, 
the  Emperor,  and  the  Kings  of  Castile  and  England,  to 
take  the  command  of  their  respective  armies.  The  Prince, 
however,  had  set  his  mind  on  other  and  larger  plans,  in- 
volving no  less  than  the  hope  of  reaching  InHia  by  the 
south  point  of  Africa.  Accordingly,  in  1418-19,  he  took 
up  his  abode  on  the  extreme  southwestern  point  of  Europe, 
with  the  purpose  of  devoting  himself  to  study,  and  to  the 
direction  and  encouragement  of  the  expeditions  which  he 
proposed  to  send  forth.  There  he  erected  an  observatory, 
and  at  great  expense  procured  the  services  of  a  man  very 
skilful  in  the  art  of  navigation  and  in  the  making  of  maps 
and  instruments,  to  instruct  the  Portuguese  officers  in 
those  sciences. 

"At  first  his  efforts  seemed  to  be  crowned  with  little 
success,  and  his  various  expeditions  called  down  upon  him 
much  obloquy  from  the  nobles,  who  complained  of  such 
an  amount  of  useless  expenditure;  but  on  the  Prince 
vituperation  fell  harmless. 

"The  glory  attaching  to  the  name  of  Prince  Henry 
does  not  rest  merely  on  the  achievements  effected  during 
his  own  lifetime,  but  on  the  stupendous  subsequent  results 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  151 

in  maritime  discovery  to  which  his  genius  and  perseverance 
had  lent  the  primary  inspiration.  The  marvelous  results 
effected  within  a  century  from  the  rounding  of  Cape  Boja- 
dor  in  1433  [nearly  sixty  years  before  Columbus],  formed 
one  unbroken  chain  of  discovery,  which  originated  in  the 
genius  and  the  efforts  of  one  man.  They  were  the  stupen- 
dous issue  of  a  great  thought  and  of  indomitable  perse- 
verance, in  spite  of  twelve  years  [1420-1432]  of  costly 
failure  and  disheartening  ridicule.  Had  that  failure  and 
that  ridicule  produced  on  Prince  Henry  the  effect  which 
they  ordinarily  produce  on  other  men,  it  is  impossible  to 
say  what  delays  would  have  occurred  before  these  mighty 
events  would  have  been  realized;  for  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  ardor,  not  only  of  his  own  soldiers,  but  of 
surrounding  nations,  owed  its  impulse  to  this  pertinacity 
of  purpose  in  him." 

Such  is  the  testimony  going  to  show  that  the  age  of 
discovery  not  only  dates  from  Prince  Plenry  long  before 
Columbus,  but  was  created  by  him,  and  was  in  full  course 
to  the  true  discovery  in  the  southern  quarter  of  a  new  world 
when  Columbus  came  upon  the  scene  with  claims  and  plans 
widely  out  of  line  with  truth,  however  successful  in  hap- 
pening on  the  islands  which  he  falsely  designated  the 
"  West  Indies." 

And  there  follows  from  these  facts  the  manifest  con- 
clusion that  when  John  Cabot  sailed,  and  effected  a  dis- 
covery of  continental  mainland  fourteen  months  before 
Columbus  fooled  away  at  the  mouths  of  the  Orinoco  his 
chance  to  report,  or  at  least  record  a  true  discovery  of  a 
new  continent,  he  was  doing  what  he  might  no  less  have 
done  if  Columbus  had  not  "  discovered  the  West  Indies." 

Venezuela  is  of  special  interest,  from  the  fact  of  which 
the  Britannica  speaks  as  follows : 

"  The  coast  of  Venezuela  was  the  first  part  of  the  Ameri- 


152  WASHINGTON. 

can  mainland  sighted  by  Columbus,  who  during  his  third 
voyage,  in  1498,  entered  the  Gulf  of  Paria  and  sailed  along 
the  coast  of  the  delta  of  the  Orinoco.  In  the  following 
year  a  much  greater  extent  of  coast  was  traced  out  by 
Alonzo  de  Ojeda,  who  was  accompanied  by  the  more  cele- 
brated Amerigo  Vespucci." 

This  brief  mention  touches  the  two  men  between  whom 
lay  the  opportunity  to  notify  the  world  that  a  new  con- 
tinent had  been  discovered, —  Columbus  on  his  third  voy- 
age and  Vespucius  a  year  later  on  his  first.  Columbus 
had  every  advantage,  and  Vespucius  was  at  every  disad- 
vantage, for  giving  out  to  Europe  and  to  all  history  new 
continental  discoveries.  Yet  Columbus  lost  his  chance; 
deliberately  threw  it  away ;  turned  his  back  on  what  should 
have  been  the  climax  of  his  career,  and  went  steadily 
downward  and  backward,  discredited  by  apparent  failure 
and  detested  as  a  fraud ;  while  Vespucius,  seizing  his  oppor- 
tunity, although  a  later  one,  turned  in  the  news  to  a  news- 
paper man,  one  of  the  very  earliest  that  ever  had  the 
handling  of  a  printing-press,  and  by  doing  so,  happened  on 
the  great  luck  of  having  it  suggested  that  what  he  had 
himself  called  a  new  world  should  be  given  the  name,  from 
his  own  name,  of  America. 

In  the  "  Letter  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  describing 
his  third  voyage  to  America,  for  which  he  sailed  May  30, 
1498,  Columbus  relates  how  he  "  saw  land  at  noon  of  Tues- 
day, the  31st  of  July,"  and,  putting  in  for  the  land,  reached 
a  cape  which  proved  to  be  the  southeastern  point  of  the 
large  island  of  Trinidad,  lying  opposite  the  mouths  of  the 
Orinoco.  Heretofore  Columbus  had  seen  nothing  but 
islands ;  now  he  was  to  see  for  the  first  time  a  continental 
coast.  Sailing  along  the  south  coast  of  this  island,  Colum- 
bus passed  through  the  strait  between  the  southwestern 
point  of  the  island  and  the  coast'  of  the  continent  into  the 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  153 

great  gulf,  lying  between  the  island  and  the  delta  of  the 
Orinoco.  Here  he  found  tremendous  currents  caused  by 
the  floods  in  the  river  at,  as  is  supposed,  its  northern 
mouths.  The  delta  includes  about  200  miles  of  coast,  and 
that  part  where  Columbus  tarried  about  two  weeks  seems 
to  have  been  on  the  north.  The  main  channel  and  mouth 
of  the  river  was  discovered  by  Ojeda  later.  Columbus 
took  no  pains  to  explore  the  coast  or  even  to  ascertain 
whether  it  was  more  than  the  coast  of  an  island. 

He  had  a  peculiar  reason  for  failing  to  do  this,  a  reason 
which  turned  upon  certain  theories  of  his.  He  had  always 
read,  he  tells  us,  that  the  world  was  spherical,  as  testified 
by  Ptolemy  and  others,  but,  he  "declares,  "  I  have  come  to 
another  conclusion  respecting  the  earth,  namely,  that  it 
is  not  round,  as  they  describe,  but  of  the  form  of  a  pear, 
which  is  very  round  except  where  the  stalk  grows,  at  which 
part  it  is  most  prominent,  this  protusion  being  the  highest 
and  nearest  the  sky ;  "  or,  as  he  said  again,  "  This  western 
half  of  the  world,  I  maintain,  is  like  the  half  of  a  very 
round  pear  having  a  raised  projection  for  the  stalk."  He 
inferred  that  "  the  extreme  blandness  of  the  temperature  " 
must  arise  "  from  this  country  being  the  most  elevated 
in  the  world  and  the  nearest  to  the  sky."  He  had  not 
learned  that  elevation,  as  by  ascent  of  a  mountain,  brings 
us  into  a  region  of  cold  even  in  the  hottest  climate  and 
under  the  most  intense  heat  of  the  sun. 

Having  thus  made  out  in  his  own  thoughts  that  he  had 
reached  the  stem  of  the  globe  where,  if  he  could  proceed, 
he  would  come  upon  the  topmost  elevation  of  the  world, 
he  gave  utterance  to  this  conviction :  "  I  believe  it  is  im- 
possible to  ascend  thither,  because  I  am  convinced  that  it 
is  the  spot  of  the  earthly  paradise,  whither  no  one  can  go 
but  by  God's  permission."  He  went  on  to  explain  that 
he  supposed  the  earthly  paradise  to  be  "  on  the  summit  of 


154  WASHINGTON. 

the  spot  which  I  have  described  as  being  in  the  form  of 
the  stalk  of  a  pear,"  the  approach  to  it  being  by  a  constant 
and  gradual  ascent,  such  that  "  no  one  could  ever  reach 
the  top;  "  while  the  floods  which  he  had  seen  he  regarded 
as  the  abundance  of  waters  pouring  down  from  this  top- 
most spot  of  the  world.  He  thought  that  the  site  coin- 
cided with  the  opinion  of  learned  theologians,  and  further- 
more he  said :  "  The  other  evidences  agree  with  the  sup- 
position, for  I  have  never  either  read  or  heard  of  fresh 
water  coming  in  so  large  a  quantity  in  close  conjunction 
with  the  water  of  the  sea;  the  idea  is  also  corroborated 
by  the  blandness  of  the  temperature;  and  if  the  water  of 
which  I  speak  does  not  proceed  from  the  earthly  paradise, 
it  appears  to  be  still  more  marvelous,  for  I  do  not  believe 
that  there  is  any  river  in  the  world  so  large  or  so  deep." 
Columbus  pronounced  here  his  opinion  that  the  waters  of 
the  sea,  by  holding  a  more  rapid  course  just  there,  had 
"  thus  carried  away  large  tracts  of  land  and  that  from 
hence  has  resulted  this  great  number  of  islands."  He  fur- 
ther said  in  support  of  his  idea  that  the  islands  had  been 
washed  out  to  sea  from  the  mainland.  "  These  islands 
themselves  afford  an  additional  proof  of  it,  for  all  of  them, 
without  exception,  run  lengthwise  from  west  to  east,  and 
from  the  northwest  to  the  southeast." 

The  possibility,  if  not  certainty,  of  an  immense  mainland 
open  to  discovery  distinctly  presented  itself  to  Columbus. 
Thus  he  said :  "  This  land  which  Your  Highnesses  have 
now  sent  me  to  explore  is  very  extensive,  and  I  think  there 
are  many  other  countries  in  the  south  of  which  the  world 
has  never  had  any  knowledge."  Had  Columbus  sailed  off 
to  the  south,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  Ojeda,  Vespucius,  and 
others,  he  would  have  made  and  reported  the  discovery 
of  continental  mainland.  This  he  did  not  do,  even  with 
the  overwhelming  suggestion  afforded  by  the  flood  from 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  155 

the  Orinoco  of  a  great  river  pouring  out  from  a  great 
continent.  He  finally  expressed  himself  in  these  terms: 
*'  I  think  that  if  the  river  mentioned  does  not  proceed  from 
the  terrestrial  paradise,  it  comes  from  an  immense  tract 
of  land  situated  in  the  south,  of  which  no  knowledge  has 
been  hitherto  obtained.  But  the  more  I  reason  on  the 
subject  the  more  satisfied  I  become  that  the  terrestrial 
paradise  is  situated  in  the  spot  I  have  described." 

So  satisfied  was  Columbus  with  what  seemed  to  him  a 
pious  conclusion  that  he  made  no  efifort  to  verify  either 
then  or  later  the  possibility  of  "  an  immense  tract  of  land 
situated  in  the  south  of  which  no  knowledge  has  hitherto, 
been  obtained."  He  said  on  the  last  page  of  his  letter: 
"And  now,  during  the  dispatch  of  the  information  respect- 
ing these  lands  which  I  have  recently  discovered,  and  where 
I  believe  in  my  soul  the  earthly  paradise  is  situated,  the 
Adelantado  (his  brother  Bartholomew)  will  proceed  with 
three  ships  well  stocked  with  provisions  on  a  further  in- 
vestigation, and  will  make  all  the  discoveries  he  can  about 
these  parts."  Whatever  this  promise  referred  to,  nothing 
in  the  important  direction  of  southern  exploration  was  un- 
dertaken. It  is  the  more  remarkable  that  he  did  nothing 
because  the  plan  of  this  third  voyage  had  been  to  take  a 
more  southerly  course  with  a  view  to  the  possibility  of 
discovering  continental  land.  The  turn  which  both  his 
thoughts  and  his  actions  took  at  the  critical  moment  may 
have  been  determined  by  the  fact  that  he  lay  helpless  and 
blind  at  the  time  under  the  double  stroke  of  agonizing 
gout  and  a  malady  of  the  eyes.  At  any  rate,  possessed 
by  an  entirely  false  conclusion,  he  sailed  away  for  Hayti 
about  August  15th,  and  found  both  himself  and  his  brother 
with  other  things  to  attend  to  than  the  prosecution  of  new 
discovery  to  the  south. 

One  thing,  however,  which  proved  his  undoing  he  thor- 


156  WASHINGTON, 

oughly  attended  to ;  he  sent  home  to  Spain  the  most  glow- 
ing account  that  he  could  of  new  discoveries  and  sent  speci- 
mens of  pearls  which  had  been  found  on  the  Orinoco  coast. 
This  led  to  voyages  permitted  by  the  Spanish  crown  with- 
out reference  to  Columbus  and  for  the  special  purpose  of 
following  up  the  new  discoveries  which  Columbus  had 
promised  to  further  prosecute.  The  first  of  these  voyages 
was  that  of  Ojeda,  who  sailed  May  20,  1499,  ^^d  Americus 
Vespucius  with  him.  Ojeda  had  the  charts  which  Colum- 
bus sent  home,  and  followed  his  track  along  the  Orinoco 
coast,  until  they  entered  a  gulf  where  some  pile  dwellings 
of  the  natives  suggested  to  them  to  leave  the  name 
Venezuela,  in  reference  to  Venice.  This  was  the  earliest 
christening  of  any  part  of  the  South  American  continent. 
Ojeda  returned  to  Spain  in  June,  1500.  Meanwhile  Pedro 
Alonzo  Nino,  who  had  been  pilot  with  Columbus  on  his 
first  voyage,  got  leave  to  sail,  and  did  sail  early  in  June, 
1499,  to  see  what  he  could  discover.  He  reached  the  Ori- 
noco coast  only  fifteen  days  later  than  Ojeda,  and,  wasting 
no  time  in  exploration,  gathered  a  rich  store  of  pearls  and 
got  back  to  Spain  as  early  as  April,  1500, —  the  first  real 
evidence  of  wealth  which  could  be  had  by  sailing  to  the 
newly-discovered  lands. 

A  third  voyage  was  that  of  Vicente  Yanez  Pinzon,  who 
had  been  with  Columbus  on  his  first  voyage.  He  got 
away  from  Palos  with  four  caravels  early  in  December, 
1499.  Pinzon  sailed  eager  to  explore,  and  accomplished 
what  Columbus  had  failed  to  do.  He  stood  boldly  to  the 
southwest,  crossed  the  equator,  and  on  January  20,  1500, 
saw  a  cape  which  was  probably  the  most  easterly  cape  of 
the  great  southern  continent.  Pinzon  then  sailed  north, 
passed  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon,  and  passed  the  Orinoco 
coast,  and  after  losing  two  of  his  ships,  got  back  to  Spain 
in  September,  1500. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  157 

Once  more,  Diego  de  Lepe,  sailing  from  Palos  with 
two  caravels  in  January,  1500,  discovered  still  farther  to 
the  south  the  coast  of  the  great  south  continent.  And 
finally,  the  Portuguese  commander,  Cabral,  after  De  Gama 
had  succeeded  in  sailing  round  Africa  to  India,  set  out, 
March  9,  1500,  with  a  fleet  to  repeat  De  Gama's  voyage. 
The  fleet  took  a  course  or  else  was  driven  out  of  its  way, 
so  far  to  the  southwest  as  to  be  brought,  on  April  22d,  to 
what  is  now  the  coast  of  Braz^il.  After  examining  the  coast 
Cabral  took  possession  for  Portugal,  May  i,  1500,  and 
sent  a  caravel  to  Portugal  with  a  letter  carrying  the  news 
of  what  he  had  found  and  what  he  had  done. 

May  13th  of  the  next  year,  1501,  a  new  Portuguese  fleet 
sailed  for  the  coast  which  Cabral  had  discovered.  It  met 
at  the  Cape  de  Verde  Islands  Cabral's  fleet,  which  had  been 
to  India,  and  was  then  on  its  return  to  Portugal.  Vespu- 
cius  was  with  the  west-bound  fleet,  and  Cabral's  discoveries 
were  now  reported  to  him  by  Cabral's  secretary  or  inter- 
preter, Gaspero.  This  new  Portuguese  expedition,  which 
Vespucius  accompanied,  made  extended  exploration  far 
down  the  coast  of  the  new  continent.  By  the  3d  of  April, 
1502,  they  had  reached  the  latitude  of  52  degrees  south, 
and  from  thence,  being  driven  off  the  coast  by  a  gale,  they 
sailed  east  to  Africa,  and  thence  to  Lisbon,  which  they 
reached  September  7,  1502.  Vespucius  wrote  an  account 
in  1503  of  this  voyage.  The  Italian  original  of  this  ac- 
count is  lost,  but  a  Latin  translation  of  it  bore  the  title, 
"  Mundus  Novus."  The  idea  of  it  was  that  far  to  the 
south  of  the  islands,  to  which  Columbus  had  exclusively 
given  attention,  there  was  a  new  world.  This  account, 
extensively  printed  in  1504  and  1505,  not  only  in  Latin, 
but  in  Italian,  German,  and  Dutch,  was  the  foundation  of 
the  fame  of  Vespucius. 

The  press  of  the  world  did  not  at  that  time  amount  to 


158  WASHINGTON. 

much,  but  with  all  that  there  was  Vespucius  got  in  the 
greatest  "  scoop,"  as  the  modern  reporter  says,  in  all  his- 
tory. He  effectively  reported  the  discovery  of  a  new 
world.  It  was  entirely  without  reference  to  the  altogether 
different  discoveries  of  Columbus,  and  Vespucius  himself 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  naming  of  the  new  world.  It 
was  from  those  who  printed  his  story  that  the  suggestion 
came  to  name  it  from  the  reporter,  and  the  suggestion 
proved  a  successful  one.  The  new  world,  referring  solely 
to  a  great  continental  south  mainland,  was  named  America, 
quite  separate  from  the  islands  to  which  Columbus  had 
given  the  name  of  the  Indies.  The  designation  was  later 
extended  to  include  the  north  continent  with  the  south, 
but  still  leaving  to  Columbus  the  islands  on  which  he  had 
taken  the  greatest  pains  to  fasten  the  name  of  Indies. 

Columbus,  meanwhile,  by  entirely  failing  to  prove  his 
assertions  in  regard  to  gold  and  other  wealth  in  the  Indies, 
and  by  sending  home  natives  to  be  sold  as  slaves,  had  so 
lost  the  confidence  of  Isabella  as  to  occasion  the  sending 
out  an  officer  of  the  royal  household,  Francisco  de  Boba- 
dilla,  with  a  commission  which  resulted  in  sending  Colum- 
bus back  to  Spain  as  a  criminal  in  chains;  and,  although 
he  succeeded  in  making  his  peace  with  the  Spanish  crown, 
and,  after  two  years  of  disheartening  neglect,  was  permit- 
ted to  make  a  fourth  voyage,  nothing  ever  came  of  it 
toward  procuring  for  Columbus  a  contemporary  relation 
to  any  discoveries  except  those  on  which  he  had  concen- 
trated his  own  interests,  the  islands  which  he  so  confidently 
pronounced  to  be  "  The  Isles  of  India  beyond  the  Ganges." 

It  is  a  circumstance  of  no  little  interest  that  experts  have 
expressed  the  opinion  that  400  miles  above  the  mouth  of 
the  Orinoco,  in  southeastern  Venezuela,  and  only  thirty 
miles  inland,  there  is  the  largest  gold  mine  on  earth.  If 
Columbus  had  been  of  a  sufficiently  exploring  spirit,  had 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  159 

been  in  health,  and  had  been  on  the  coast  at  the  proper 
season  of  the  year,  he  might  have  found  this  gold  mine, 
might  have  reported  the  discovery  of  continental  land, 
and  might  with  the  greatest  certainty  have  made  the  world 
talk  about  him  in  connection  with  a  new  world,  as  it  but 
a  little  later  did  talk  about  Vespucius. 

A  new  and  critical  Life  of  Columbus,  on  lines  of  the  real 
history  of  voyages  and  discoveries,  ought  to  be  offered  to 
the  world  from  Chicago,  in  atonement  for  the  strange 
ignorance  of  history,  so  accessible  in  the  Britannica,  with 
which  "  Columbian  "  was  written  across  the  whole  scene 
of  historical  commemoration  in  1892-3. 

When  John  Cabot,  on  our  July  4th,  landed  on  the  main- 
land of  North  America,  he  set  up  a  great  cross,  and  un- 
furled above  it  the  flag  of  England  and  the  Venetian  ban- 
ner of  St.  Mark.  The  England  of  Queen  Elizabeth  built 
on  this  foundation  and  made  possible  the  United  States  of 
North  America.  Discovery  Day  stands  above  Indepen- 
dence Day,  in  the  larger  view  of  history. 

The  London  "  Times  "  of  March  6th  published  the  fol- 
lowing, under  the  head  of  "  The  Cabot  Anniversary :  " 

"  Yesterday  was  the  four  hundredth  anniversary  of  an 
event  which  has  always  been  understood  to  mark  the 
foundation  of  the  British  Colonial  Empire.  On  March  5, 
1496,  Henry  VII  granted  a  petition-preferred  by  a  Bristol 
captain  and  his  three  sons,  praying  the  sanction  of  the 
crown  to  a  contemplated  voyage  in  search  of  unknown 
countries  believed  to  exist  beyond  the  ocean  in  northern 
latitudes.  Pursuant  to  this  petition,  which  is  still  pre- 
served in  the  public  record  office,  the  privy  seal  was  on  the 
same  day  affixed  to  the  first  charter  authorizing  its  holders 
to  hoist  the  EngHsh  flag  on  shores  hitherto  unknown  to 
Christian  people,  and  to  acquire  the  sovereignty  of  them 
for  the  English  crown.     This  charter,  granted  to  John 


160  WASHINGTON. 

Cabot  and  his  sons,  Lewis,  Sebastian,  and  Sanctus,  stipu- 
lates that  the  grantees  shall,  after  every  voyage,  return 
to  the  port  of  Bristol;  that  they  shall  then  and  there  pay 
to  the  crown,  in  money  or  merchandise,  one-fifth  of  their 
net  profits;  that  they  shall  be  permitted  to  import  their 
merchandise  free  of  customs;  and  that  no  EngUsh  subject 
shall  frequent  the  continents,  islands,  villages,  towns, 
castles,  and  places  discovered  by  them  without  their  license. 
The  Cabot  charter  and  the  voyages  made  pursuant  to  it 
were  always  regarded  as  the  root  of  England's  title  to  her 
American  possessions.  Charters  of  a  similar  kind  had 
been  from  time  to  time  granted  by  the  Portuguese  crown. 
While  the  Cabot  patent  disregards  the  Pope's  partition  of 
the  globe  between  Portugal  and  Spain,  it  authorizes  no 
intrusion  into  the  southern  seas  in  which  each  of  these 
powers  had  already  acquired  colonial  possessions  by  actual 
occupancy.  Columbus'  discoveries  were  as  yet  limited  to 
the  chain  of  islands  separating  the  Caribbean  sea  from  the 
Atlantic.  Cabot's  discoveries  on  his  first  voyage  are  dis- 
puted [as  to  their  exact  location],  but  it  seems  most  prob- 
able that  in  1497,  if  not  in  1496,  he  reached  the  peninsula 
of  Labrador,  and  coasted  a  considerable  part,  if  not  the 
whole,  of  its  Atlantic  shore,  leaving  the  shores  of  Newfound- 
land, which  he  mistook,  as  he  very  well  might  do,  for  two 
islands  instead  of  one,  to  starboard  on  his  return.  In  any 
case,  his  title  to  be  considered  the  first  pioneer  of  English 
colonization  is  indisputable,  and  it  is  equally  certain  that 
the  title  of  the  English  crown  to  the  shores  which  he  is 
generally  understood  to  have  reached  has  never  been  suc- 
cessfully questioned." 

The  recognition  thus  accorded  upon  the  highest  Eng- 
lish authority  to  John  Cabot  as  the  instrument  by  which 
the  northern  continent  of  the  new  world  was  secured  to" 
England  instead  of  Spain  and  the  English  Colonies,  which 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  161 

became  the  United  States,  were  made  possible,  is  beyond 
all  doubt  just  and  true.  The  four  hundredth  anniver- 
sary of  the  earHest  event  to  which  our  North  America 
looks  back  is  that  noted  by  the  London  "  Times."  The 
more  important  four  hundredth  anniversary  in  1897, 
on  the  day,  as  far  as  it  can  now  be  known,  which  was 
counted  four  centuries  ago  as  June  24th,  but  the  present 
anniversary  of  which  is  our  July  4th.  It  is  entirely  with- 
out coming  into  conflict  in  any  way  with  the  claims  of 
Columbus,  and  doing  no  wrong  to  whatever  credit  his- 
tory should  give  to  Columbus,  that  English-speaking  peo- 
ple interested  in  North  America  must,  if  they  care  any- 
thing for  the  truth  of  history,  refer  the  North  America 
which  now  exists  to  John  Cabot's  historically  separate 
discovery  and  to  1497  as  the  true  earliest  North  American 
date.  But  it  was  in  the  sequel  to  Cabot's  work  that  Eng- 
land set  a  seal  of  imperial  claim  across  the  great  north 
continent. 

The  Tudors,  who  reigned  in  England  from  1485  to 
1603,  were  a  most  remarkable  race.  They  began  with 
Henry  VII,  148 5-1 509,  under  whom  the  Cabots  discov- 
ered North  America.  As  early  as  1491  the  age  of  new 
learning  had  fully  dawned  m  England.  The  Utopia  of 
Sir  Thomas  More,  written  a  little  later,  represents  this 
learning  on  lines  which  our  best  advance  in  culture  of 
every  kind  has  not  yet  overtaken ;  and  for  a  plan  the  story 
is  credited  to  a  Portuguese  who,  "for  the  desire  that  he 
had  to  see  and  know  the  far  countries  of  the  world,  had 
joined  himself  in  company  with  Amerike  Vespuce,  and 
in  the  three  last  voyages  of  the  four  that  be  now  in  print 
and  abroad  in  every  man's  hands,  had  continued  still  in  his 
company."  This  reference  of  the  greatest  writer  at  that 
date,  1 5 16,  shows  what  figure  "  Mayster  Amerike,"  or 
II 


162  WASHINGTON. 

"Mayster  Vespuce,"  had  cut  before  the  world,  and  how 
the  narrative  put  forth  by  him  had  excited  the  universal 
interest  which  very  naturally  and  very  justly  suggested 
calling  the  novus  mundus,  the  news  of  which  he  gave, 
America. 

Political  exigencies  drove  Henry  VII  from  the  first  into 
close  relations  with  Spain,  and  these  were  cemented  in 
1 501  by  the  marriage  of  the  Infanta  Catharine,  daughter 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  to  Arthur,  Henry's  eldest  son. 
The  death  of  Arthur  left  the  Infanta  a  widow,  but  circum- 
stances in  Europe  caused  Spain  to  so  much  desire  EngUsh 
good-will  that  Isabella,  contrary  to  Catholic  principle  and 
contrary  to  the  English  King's  feeling,  strongly  urged 
the  union  of  Catharine  with  Arthur's  brother  Henry.  The 
wishes  of  Isabella,  a  faithful  Catholic,  secured  the  consent 
of  the  Pope  and  a  betrothal  of  the  Infanta  and  the  Prince 
took  place.  He  was  six  years  the  younger,  but  when  he 
came  to  the  throne  in  1509,  her  passionate  love  was,  within 
two  months,  rewarded  by  the  marriage  which  a  cruel  fate 
would  turn  to  bitterness.  Henry  VIII  was  thus  the  son- 
in-law  of  Fedinand,  and  England  a  dependent  of  Spain. 
Henry  promised  that  he  would  obey  Ferdinand  as  he  had 
obeyed  his  own  father,  and  Catharine  spoke  of  Henry  and 
herself  as  Ferdinand's  subjects. 

Isabella  had  died  in  1504,  leaving  a  daughter  married 
to  Philip,  the  son  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian.  Their  son 
was  Charles,  who  became  the  Emperor  Charles  V,  and 
whose  son  PhiHp  was  to  fill  so  large  and  so  dark  a  place 
in  the  history  of  Europe.  Ferdinand  died  in  1516,  and 
was  succeeded  by  his  daughter's  son,  Charles  V,  who  be- 
came   Emperor   in    1519,   having  been   elected   after   his 

father's  death. 

The  son  of  Charles  V,  Philip  II  of  Spain,  came  to  the 
Spanish  throne  in  1556.    The  life  of  Henry  VIII  of  Eng- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  163 

land  had  run  out  in  1547;  his  son  Edward  had  ruled  under 
anti-Catholic  guidance,  1547-53;  and  Mary  had  come  to 
the  English  throne  in  1553.  To  Mary,  Philip  II,  the  heir 
to  Spain,  was  married  in  1554,  and  when  he  left  her  in 
1555  to  prepare  to  succeed  the  next  year  to  the  throne 
of  Spain,  nothing  seemed  more  unlikely  than  English  de- 
fiance, defeat,  and  destruction  of  Spanish  supremacy. 

Mary  was  in  many  ways  ardently  Spanish,  and  by  so 
much  unpopular  with  those  of  her  subjects  who  were  every 
day  becoming  more  and  more  prejudiced  against  Spanish 
power,  and  most  of  all  against  Philip,  Mary's  Spanish  hus- 
band, who  now  wore  the  title  of  King,  while  the  coin  of 
the  realm,  bearing  the  name  of  Philip  with  that  of  Mary, 
made  England  seem  apparently  a  part  of  Spain.  And  the 
situation  thus  unfortunately  created  by  the  antagonism  of 
pro-English  and  pro-Spanish  sympathies,  became  greatly 
aggravated  when  it  appeared  that  Mary,  who  was  twelve 
years  older  than  her  husband  and  in  very  poor  health  was 
childless,  and  that  the  marriage  virtually  gave  England  to 
Spain.  The  death  of  Mary  changed  everything.  England 
became  the  inheritance  of  her  half-sister  Elizabeth. 

Henry  VIII,  to  whom  the  Infanta  Catharine,  though 
an  excellent  and  faithful  wife,  had  become  a  doubtful 
spouse  when  he  saw  no  male  child  survive  to  be  his  heir, 
had  been  fascinated  by  a  girl  of  sixteen  about  1522,  and 
January  25,  1533,  he  was  secretly  married  to  her,  after  a 
long  scandal  of  shameless  divorce  proceedings  to  get  rid 
of  Catharine.  It  turned  out  badly  for  Anne  Boleyn,  wife 
and  Queen  though  she  became,  because  Henry  found  out, 
or  rather  supposed  that  he  did,  that  she  had  misbehaved 
before  her  marriage,  and  for  that  he  ruthlessly  put  her 
to  death.  But  she  had  borne  to  him  a  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth, a  woman  destined  to  the  greatest  place  and  the  grand- 
est fortune  Engand  from  first  to  last  has  known.     Like 


1(34  WASHINGTON. 

George  Eliot,  the  woman-Socrates  of  our  time,  she  got 
from  her  mother  some  points  of  weakness  or  wayward- 
ness of  character,  but  all  the  same  the  motherhood  of  which 
she  came,  queenly  and  powerful  for  the  moment,  with  what 
of  greatest  there  was  in  her  father,  had  served  to  create, 
beneath  superficial  frailties  sufficiently  scandalous,  a  lion- 
hearted  mother-monarch  the  greatest  that  ever  sat  on  a 
throne. 

And  in  the  events  of  her  career  lay  more  of  the  future 
of  the  world  than  in  any  other  life  ever  known.  There 
would  have  been  no  such  North  America  as  gave  the 
United  States  but  for  the  changes  which  her  great  reign 
effected.  It  has  not  been  noted  in  history,  but  the  un- 
questioned fact  is  that  there  would  have  been  no  Pilgrim 
Fathers  and  no  planting  by  them  of  New  England,  but 
for  the  train'of  events  set  in  motion  by  her  peculiar  course 
in  the  execution  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  The  defiance, 
defeat,  and  destruction  of  the  supremacy  of  Spain,  in  both 
the  old  world  and  the  new,  was  the  greatest  work  of  Eliza- 
beth, due  to  the  might  of  her  spirit  and  to  the  masterly 
skill  and  courage  of  her  seamen. 

Philip  II  had  reached  inordinate  greatness,  in  territory, 
in  arms  by  land  and  sea,  and  in  weahh,  when  the  struggle 
came.  Naples  and  Milan,  the  best  parts  of  Italy,  were 
his.  He  ruled  the  Low  Countries,  and  was  master  of 
Flanders,  where  manufactures  were  more  developed  than 
anywhere  else  in  Europe,  and  of  Antwerp,  then  the  great- 
est center  of  commerce  of  the  world.  In  1580  he  absorbed 
Portugal  and  doubled  thereby  his  naval  power.  Cortez 
and  Pizarro  had  given  him  Mexico  and  Peru,  the  wealth 
of  which  realized  those  breams  of  Columbus  which  were 
his  ruin  in  the  "West  Indies."  Spain  itself  put  into  the 
field  the  best  soldiers  the  world  had  seen  since  the  legions 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  165 

of  Rome,  and  generals  as  marvelously  able  as  they  were 
ruthlessly  cruel. 

The  ancestor  of  Philip,  Ferdinand,  had  very  early  blot- 
ted out  popular  liberty  in  Castile,  Isabella's  kingdom,  and 
Philip  served  that  of  Aragon  in  the  same  way.  He  set  the 
Duke  of  Alva,  whose  niece  the  son  of  Columbus  married, 
to  crush  out  both  liberty  and  heresy  in  the  Low  Countries ; 
and  when  the  Thirty  Years'  War  fell  with  its  terrible 
blight  on  Germany,  it  was  by  the  malignity  of  Spain. 
There  seemed  nothing  to  hinder  dealing  with  England  on 
the  same  Hues  of  relentless  Spanish  despotism;  and  there 
was  nothing  but  the  spirit  of  Elizabeth  and  the  skill  and 
courage  of  her  fighting  seamen. 

So  early  as  in  the  reign  of  Mary,  three  ships  under 
Hugh  Willoughby  and  Richard  Chancellor  had  struck 
west  and  north  in  quest  of  a  passage  to  Asia.  The  com- 
mander and  two  of  the  ships  were  frozen  on  the  coast  of 
Lapland,  but  Chancellor  got  through  to  the  White  Sea 
and  opened  at  Archangel  trade  with  Russia.  Again,  in 
1576,  Martin  Frobisher,  representing  English  thoughts 
of  the  new  world,  sailed  to  the  coast  of  Labrador  in  hope 
of  a  northwestern  passage  to  India. 

From  the  time  of  the  Cabots,  1497-8,  and  notably  under 
Henry  VIII,  Englishmen  sought  the  North  American  coast 
for  fish,  and  found  therein  a  school  of  hardy  seamanship. 
And  as  the  politics  of  Spain,  aimed  to  destroy  Elizabeth 
in  the  interests  of  Spain  and  the  papacy,  gradually  de- 
veloped a  desperate  antagonism,  though  without  open  war, 
between  the  two  powers,  there  grew  into  wide  vigor  and 
daring  an  efifort  of  England,  its  people  rather  than  its  gov- 
ernment, and  by  sea  rather  than  land,  to  do  harm  to  Spain, 
and  especially  to  Spanish  monopoly  of  the  new  world. 

When  Charles  V  came  to  the  throne,  at  the  death  of 
Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  in  15 16,  twelve  years  later  than  the 


166  WASHINGTON. 

death  of  Isabella,  "  Spanish  rule,"  in  the  words  of  Greene, 
whose  authority  cannot  be  questioned,  ''  had  hardly  spread 
beyond  the  island  of  St.  Domingo,  which  Columbus  had 
discovered  twenty  years  before," — so  little  true  is  it  that 
Columbus  gave  to  Spain  a  new  world.  All  that  was  later 
work  by  other  hands.  Mr.  Greene  goes  on  after  the  state- 
ment just  quoted,  as  follows : 

"  But  greed  and  enterprise  drew  Cortez  to  the  mainland, 
and  in  1521  his  conquest  of  Mexico  added  a  realm  of  gold 
to  the  dominions  of  the  Emperor.  Ten  years  later  the 
great  Empire  of  Peru  yielded  to  the  arms  of  Pizarro. 
With  the  conquest  of  Chili  the  whole  western  coast  of 
South  America  passed  into  the  hands  of  Spain;  and  suc- 
cessive expeditions  planted  the  Spanish  flag  at  point  upon 
point  along  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic  from  Florida  to  the 
river  Plate  (south  of  Brazil).  A  papal  grant  had  con- 
veyed the  whole  of  America  to  the  Spanish  crown,  and 
fortune  seemed  for  long  years  to  ratify  the  judgment  of 
the  Vatican.  No  European  nation  save  Portugal  disputed 
the  possession  of  the  new  world,  and  Portugal  was  too 
busy  with  its  discoveries  in  Africa  and  India  to  claim  more 
than  the  territory  of  Brazil.  A  Huguenot  colony  which 
settled  in  Florida  was  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Spaniards.  Only 
in  the  far  north  did  a  few  French  settlers  find  rest  beside 
the  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  England  had  reached  the 
mainland  even  earlier  than  Spain,  for  before  Columbus 
touched  its  shores  [in  the  south]  Sebastian  Cabot  sailed 
with  an  English  crew  from  Bristol  in  1497.  But  no  Eng- 
lishman followed  on  the  track  of  this  bold  adventurer ;  and 
while  Spain  built  up  her  empire  in  the  new  world,  the 
English  seamen  reaped  a  humbler  harvest  in  the  fisheries 
of  Newfoundland.  The  one  result  of  the  first  discovery 
of  the  western  continent  was  to  give  an  enormous  impulse 
to  the  most  bigoted  and  tyrannical  among  the  powers  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  167 

Europe,  and  to  pour  the  gold  of  Mexico  and  Peru  into 
the  treasury  of  Spain." 

Four  years  had  hardly  passed  from  Elizabeth's  accession 
before  English  seadogs,  under  one  plea  or  another,  were 
swarming  in  the  English  Channel.  It  became  in  due  time 
a  quest  of  Spanish  booty  wherever  it  could  be  found ;  and 
that  soon  meant  ripping  open  the  veil  thrown  by  Spain 
over  the  seas  and  shores  of  America. 

The  genuius  of  Drake  led  him  to  set  on  foot  schemes  for 
every  possible  undoing  of  Spain  in  America.  In  1572  he 
sailed  to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  where,  once  a  year,  were 
brought  the  gold  and  silver  from  +.he  mines  of  Peru,  and 
bursting  with  his  handful  of  m.en  into  the  Governor's 
house,  he  said  to  his  companions :  "  I  have  brought  you 
to  the  mouth  of  the  treasury  of  the  world."  Wounded  and 
beaten  off,  he  frankly  proclaimed  somewhat  later  to  a 
Spaniard :  "  I  am  resolved,  by  the  help  of  God,  to  reap 
some  of  the  golden  harvest  which  you  have  got  out  of  the 
earth  and  sent  to  Spain  to  trouble  the  earth."  He  was 
shown  by  some  natives  where  to  climb  a  tree,  from  which, 
first  of  Englishmen,  he  saw  the  waters  of  the  Pacific,  and 
throwing  himself  on  his  knees  he  prayed  to  God  to  allow 
him  to  live  to  sail  an  English  vessel  on  those  seas. 

In  1577  he  set  sail  for  a  skirmish  clear  round  South 
America  and  entirely  round  the  world,  with  three  ships, 
of  which  his  own,  the  largest,  was  of  but  100  tons.  In 
the  stormy  Straits  of  Magellan  he  alone  passed  through, 
but,  ranging  up  the  coast  he  easily  caught  the  Spaniards 
everywhere  off  their  guard,  and  made  many  captures  of 
precious  booty,  including  the  cargo  of  a  great  vessel,  from 
which  he  got  a  large  store  of  jewels,  thirteen  chests  of 
silver  coin,  eighty  pounds'  weight  of  gold,  and  twenty-six 
tons  of  silver. 

Going  north  as  high  as  California  he  made  a  landing 


168  WASHINGTON. 

in  the  harbor  now  that  of  San  Francisco,  took  possession 
in  the  name  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  planted  the  name 
'*  New  Albion."  A  monument  recently  erected  marks  the 
spot  of  this  prophetic  defiance  of  Spain  on  the  coast  thus 
far  exclusively  Spanish. 

Drake  struck  thence  directly  across  the  Pacific,  reached 
the  true  Isles  of  India  beyond  the  Ganges,  7,000  miles 
beyond  the  goal  of  the  voyages  of  Columbus,  and  thence 
took  his  course  home  by  the  way  of  the  south  cape  of 
Africa,  and  came  to  England  in  1580,  the  first  commander 
who  had  circumnavigated  the  globe.  Magellan's  expedi- 
tion had  gone  clear  round  before  him,  but  the  commander 
had  died  on  the  way. 

The  King  of  Spain  in  a  great  fury  demanded  from  Eliza- 
beth the  surrender  of  Drake.  Her  reply  was  to  make 
him  Sir  Francis  Drake.  Philip  angrily  insisted  on  the 
return  of  the  half  million  sterling  of  wealth  which  the  bold 
sailor  had  gleaned  in  Pacific  waters.  Her  reply  was  to 
have  the  jewels  which  Drake  had  presented  to  her  set  in 
the  crown  which  she  wore.  The  Spanish  ambassador 
thought  to  move  her  by  saying  that  ''  matters  would  come 
to  the  cannon,"  and  to  this  threat  her  answer  was  that  if 
he  talked  in  that  way  to  her  she  would  fling  him  into  a 
dungeon.  The  official  wrote  to  his  master  describing  how 
"she  quietly,  in  her  most  natural  voice,  as  if  she  were 
telling  a  common  story,  replied  that  if  I  used  threats  of 
that  kind  she  would  fling  me  into  a  dungeon." 

This  defiance  was  flung  at  Philip  just  as  he  was  reach- 
ing his  highest  position  of  resources  and  power  and  ad- 
vantage. His  general  in  the  Netherlands  was  winning 
both  military  and  diplomatic  success.  At  the  death,  in 
the  year  of  Drake's  return,  of  the  King  of  Portugal,  Philip's 
claim  to  absorb  it  was  successfully  backed  by  Alva  march- 
ing upon   Lisbon,  and   thus   Spain  almost   doubled  her 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  169 

power,  more  than  doubled  her  naval  strength,  secured 
colonies  richer  than  her  own,  and  got  the  richest  trade 
in  the  world.  With  the  close  of  1583  Spanish  successes 
left  Elizabeth  face  to  face  with  the  master  of  what 
seemed  irresistible  forces,  to  whom  it  was  becoming  a 
necessity  to  crush  England,  in  order  to  final  defeat  of 
Dutch  revolt,  and  to  preserve  his  monopoly  of  the  new 
world  by  disabling  the  power  that  suffered  Drake  to 
sweep  the  seas.  In  August,  1585,  Antwerp,  the  seat  of 
European  commerce,  which  London  had  not  yet  become, 
became  the  last  splendid  prize  of  Spanish  victory. 

Yet  Elizabeth  and  her  seadogs  held  their  course  of  cool 
defiance  undaunted.  English  freebooters  dashed  boldly 
into  the  Spanish  seas  of  the  new  world,  full  of  hatred  of 
Spain  and  resolved  to  win  English  dominion  beyond  the 
Atlantic.  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  Raleigh's  brother-in- 
law,  and  one  of  nature's  noblemen,  sought  the  coast  of 
North  America  to  plant  a  colony,  and,  returning  from  de- 
feat of  his  plans,  was  overtaken  in  his  ship  of  only  ten  tons 
by  a  terrible  storm  at  night.  The  companions  of  his  voy- 
age, sailing  near  when  wreck  threatened  his  little  craft, 
heard  him  cry,  "  We  are  as  near  to  heaven  by  sea  as  by 
land."  Raleigh  himself  sent  an  expedition  which  planted 
at  least  a  great  name  on  the  continent  of  North  America, 
that  of  "  Virginia,"  a  compliment  to  the  Virgin  Queen  of 
England. 

Drake  in  1585  was  permitted  to  sail  to  the  Spanish  Main 
with  a  fleet  of  twenty-five  vessels,  where  he  burned  the 
cities  of  St.  Domingo  and  Carthagena  to  revenge  Spanish 
treatment  of  English  sailors ;  plundered  the  coasts  of 
Cuba  and  Florida;  and  gathered  a  heavy  booty,  with 
which  he  returned  home  in  the  summer  of  1586.  On  the 
continent  Elizabeth  had  taken  an  open  hand  with  troops 
as  well  as  money  in  the  stout  resistance  of  the  Dutch  to 


170  .  WASHINGTON. 

the  prodigious  pounding  kept  up  by  the  generals  of  Philip ; 
and  with  this  English  army  in  Flanders  and  Drake  defiant 
and  destructive  in  the  West  Indies,  it  was  but  too  clear  to 
Philip  that  he  must  strike  with  all  his  might  at  England. 
The  fight  was  one  of  intense  antagonism  between  the  two 
parties  into  which  England  was  broken  by  bitter  religious 
differences,  and  by  consequence  it  was  less  what  the  hapless 
Mary  had  intended  than  what  the  respective  parties  sought 
to  aocompHsh,  the  one  by  using  her  claims  against  those 
of  Elizabeth,  and  the  other  by  making  the  seat  of  Eliza- 
beth more  secure  through  compassing  the  death  of  Mary 
(February  8,  1587). 

The  reply  of  Philip  was  the  Spanish  Armada,  to  all  ap- 
pearance as  irresistible  as  it  was  immense  and  magnificent, 
132  vessels  covering  seven  miles  of  sea  as  they  swept  in 
a  broad  crescent  past  Plymouth  harbor,  where  the 
English  fleet  of  but  eighty  vessels  lay  ready  to  fall  on 
their  rear.  Of  the  thirty  larger  Queen's  ships  only  four 
were  equal  in  tonnage  to  the  smallest  of  the  Spanish  gal- 
leons, and  the  other  fifty  craft  of  the  eighty  were  not 
bigger  than  the  common  pleasure  yachts  of  a  later  time. 
Spain  had  sixty-five  great  galleons;  four  gigantic  gal- 
leasses carrying  fifty  guns  apiece;  fifty-six  armed  mer- 
chantmen, and  twenty  pinnaces ;  with  2,500  cannon,  20,000 
soldiers,  and  8,000  seamen. 

But  the  English  shipwrights  had  put  their  skill  into 
ships  that  could  be  handled  better  than  the  Spanish; 
EngHsh  seamanship  was  vastly  better  than  Spanish;  the 
marine  artillery  of  England  made  the  Spanish  method  of 
getting  to  close  quarters  and  letting  musketry  do  the 
work  almost  useless ;  and  English  commanders  thoroughly 
knew  the  trade  of  sea  fighting,  while  Philip  had  put  the 
Armada  under  a  Spanish  duke  who  knew  nothing  of  the 
sea  and  nothing  of  war.    The  faster  English  ships,  carry- 


UFE  AND  TIMES.  171 

ing  more  and  heavier  cannon  than  the  Spanish,  and 
marines  and  sailors,  rather  than  soldiers,  made  easy  game 
of  the  lumbering  magnificence,  the  small-shotted  cannon, 
and  the  throng  of  useless  musketeers  on  the  great  decks 
of  Spain's  big  Armada. 

Letting  the  seven  miles  of  Spanish  bravery  go  by  be- 
fore the  west  wind,  Drake  and  the  English  captains  tore 
furiously  at  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  until  with  the  loss  of 
several  ships,  they  were  glad  to  put  into  Calais  for  refuge ; 
a  refuge  from  the  which  English  fire-ships  sent  in  speedily 
drove  them,  and  brought  on  a  pitched  battle  off  Grave- 
lines,  in  which  the  English  did  all  the  pitching,  their 
swifter  ships,  and  guns  of  longer  range,  and  heavier  shot, 
riddling  unmercifully  the  helpless  bulk  of  the  clumsy  Ar- 
mada. 

Wind  and  storm  came  to  the  aid  of  the  English  victors, 
driving  the  fleets  past  the  coast  of  Flanders,  where  Philip's 
ablest  general,  the  Duke  of  Parma,  with  an  army,  lay 
ready  for  the  Armada  to  fall  on  the  Dutch  fleet  block- 
ading his  port  and  to  convey  him  over  to  the  conquest  of 
England.  As  the  tall  galleons  and  gigantic  galleasses  of 
Spain  swept  on  before  the  storm,  hard  pressed  by  Eliza- 
beth's seadogs,  Parma  saw  that  it  was  a  worse  than  Dutch 
business.  With  sails  torn,  masts  shot  away,  and  4,000 
dead  or  dying  on  their  crowded  decks,  the  Spanish  cap- 
tains saw  no  hope  but  to  beat  a  retreat  up  the  North  Sea, 
around  Scotland  to  the  west  of  Ireland,  and  so  back  to 
Spain. 

Over  the  top  of  Scotland  the  northern  storms  completed 
the  destruction  which  Drake's  well-handled  ships  and  guns 
had  begun.  The  flower  of  Spain's  nobility  were  swallowed 
by  the  pitiless  sea.  Eight  thousand  Spaniards  perished  on 
a  storm-swept  coast.  On  a  single  strand  the  sea  cast  up 
1,100  of  the  dead.     Only  fifty  ships  at  last  reached  Co- 


172  WASHINGTON, 

runna,  and  these  brought  10,000  men  dying  of  the  pesti- 
lence which  had  smitten  the  suffering  ships. 

The  question  of  England  and  of  Spain,  on  the  sea  and 
the  land,  in  the  old  world  and  the  new,  was  settled  forever. 
England  rose  beyond  the  reach  of  any  foe,  and  Spain  fell, 
to  lose  the  Netherlands  in  the  near  future,  to  be  stripped 
of  her  holdings  in  Italy  in  the  next  century,  and  at  last 
to  find  all  of  America  gone  save  the  island  of  Cuba. 

In  1604,  after  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  a  treaty  of  peace 
with  Spain,  left  England  secure  of  North  America.  The 
settlement  of  Virginia  was  begun  in  1607,  and  that  of 
New  England  in  1620.  The  work  begun  by  Cabot  on  that 
day  of  discovery,  which  is  our  July  4,  in  the  year  1497, 
gave  at  last  the  hope  of  our  America.  If  Queen  Elizabeth 
had  been  the  mere  creature  of  scandalous  faults  which  in 
every-day  externals  of  character  she  seems  to  have  been ; 
if  she  had  not  been  in  her  deeper  nature  and  better  self 
colossal  in  mother  concern  for  her  people  and  in  the 
courage  of  her  race  and  her  throne,  there  might  have 
long  hung  across  the  whole  breadth  of  our  South,  the 
Spanish  cloud  of  corroding  despotism,  which  is  to  this 
hour  the  infamy  of  civilization.  If  adequate  learning  had 
attended  the  celebration  by  the  United  States  of  what 
our  America  has  become,  and  what  acknowledgments 
are  due  from  the  land  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  of 
Washington,  there  would  have  arisen  above  every  other 
monument  of  the  splendid  scene,  the  memorial  figure  of 
the  woman-monarch  whose  captains  planted  New  Albion 
on  the  Pacific  southwest  of  our  continent,  and  "  Virginia," 
the  Virginia  of  that  time  being  an  empire  of  which  New 
England  was  the  northeastern  part. 

Recurrence  to  facts  such  as  these  more  than  suggests 
that  "  New  France  "  was  planted  on  English  domain,  that 
Jacques  Cartier,  entering  the  St.  Lawrence  in  1534,  was  a 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  173 

French  intruder,  that  all  that  followed  from  the  mouth 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  tram- 
pled upon  English  rights,  and  that  Spain  unadvisedly  and 
unwarrantably  encroached  in  attempting  any  hold  what- 
ever upon  soil  north  of  the  Gulf.  That  the  gods  of  world- 
destiny  thought  so,  is  writ  large  on  the  history  of  the  end 
of  the  nineteenth  century.] 


CHAPTER  II. 

WASHINGTON'S  FIRST  BATTLE. 

1754. 

CAPTAIN   CONTRECCEUR   and   his   troops   were 
now  in  full   possession  of   the  military  work  com- 
menced by  Captain  Trent,  whom  they  had  driven 
from  this  post  at  the  Fork  of  the  Ohio. 

With  but  three  companies,  consisting  of  150  men. 
Colonel  Washington  could  not  prudently  proceed  to  the 
fort  to  attack  a  force  so  very  greatly  superior  to  his  own  in 
numbers  and  equipment.  He  wrote  therefore  to  the  Gov- 
ernors of  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland,  and  asked 
for  additions  to  his  little  band. 

He  resolved  to  march  on  however  while  the  proposed 
enlistment  was  in  progress ;  to  repair  to  the  mouth  of  Red- 
stone creek,  which  was  thirty-seven  miles  from  the  cap- 
tured post ;  to  erect  a  fort  there,  and  to  wait  for  reinforce- 
ments ;  but,  in  the  event  of  their  not  reaching  him  in  time, 
to  be  prepared  for  a  retreat. 

[To  Governor  Sharpe  of  Maryland,  Washington  wrote 
from  Will's  Creek  April  24,  of  Captain  Trent's  surrender 
of  "  his  small  fortress  in  the  Forks  of  the  Monongahela ;  " 
of  his  arrival  thus  far  with  a  detachment  of  159  men; 
of  Colonel  Fry  expected  to  follow  with  the  remainder  of 
the  regiments  and  artillery ;  of  the  work  being  done  upon 
roads  fit  for  the  carriage  of  the  great  guns;  and  of  the 
design  to  proceed  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  Red  Stone  Creek 
on  the  Monongahela,  thirty-seven  miles  above  the  fort 

(174) 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  175 

surrendered  to  the  French,  where  a  storehouse  built  by 
the  Ohio  Company  would,  for  the  present,  serve  to  re- 
ceive their  ammunition  and  provisions.  In  apology  for 
writing  to  one  whose  acquaintance  he  had  never  made, 
Washington  said :  "  It  was  the  glowing  zeal  I  owe  my 
country  that  influenced  me  to  impart  these  advices  that 
should  rouse  from  the  lethargy  we  have  fallen  into,  the 
heroic  spirit  of  every  freeborn  Englishman."  A  letter 
of  similar  import  was  sent  to  Governor  Hamilton  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  laid  before  the  Legislature  of  that  Colony. 
To  Governor  Dinwiddie  he  had  written  April  15,  report- 
ing the  steps  he  had  taken,  and  saying.  "  I  hope  my  pro- 
ceedings will  be  satisfactory  to  your  Honor,  as  I  have, 
to  the  utmost  of  my  knowledge,  consulted  the  interest 
of  the  expedition  and  good  of  my  country ;  whose  rights, 
while  they  are  asserted  in  so  just  a  cause,  I  will  defend 
to  the  last  remains  of  my  life."  He  further  says  that  at 
Red  Stone  Creek  "  we  will  fortify  ourselves  as  strongly 
as  the  short  time  will  allow."] 

On  the  1st  day  of  May  he  set  out  from  Wills  Creek.  His 
march  was  however  very  tedious.  Many  and  great  diffi- 
culties were  encountered  in  his  course  through  woods  and 
marshes  and  among  rocks  with  an  inadequate  supply  of 
provisions  for  his  men.  Having  on  the  20th  day  of  May 
(1754),  reached  the  Youghiogheny,  a  branch  of  the 
Monongahela,  he  found  it  impossible  to  convey  his  troops 
across  but  by  the  tardy  process  of  building  a  bridge.  His 
effort  to  avoid  this  resort  he  has  himself  described.  And 
his  account  affords  a  new  and  happy  illustration  of  his  char- 
acteristic qualities: 

"  On  the  20th  of  May  I  embarked  in  a  canoe  with  Lieu- 
tenant West,  three  soldiers,  and  an  Indian.  Having  fol- 
lowed the  river  for  about  half  a  mile  we  were  obliged  to 
go  ashore,  where  we  found  a  trader  who  seemed  to  dis- 


176  WASHINGTON, 

courage  my  attempt  to  seek  a  passage  by  water,  which 
caused  me  to  change  my  intention  of  having  canoes  made. 

"  I  ordered  the  troops  to  wade  the  river,  as  the  waters 
had  now  sufficiently  subsided.  I  continued  to  descend  the 
river,  but  finding  our  canoe  too  small  for  six  persons  we 
stopped  to  construct  a  bark,  with  which  and  the  canoe  we 
reached  Turkey  Foot  just  as  the  night  began.  Eight  or 
ten  miles  farther  onward  we  encountered  several  difficulties 
which  were  of  little  consequence.  At  this  point  we  stopped 
some  time  to  examine  the  position  and  found  it  well  suited 
for  a  fort,  being  at  the  mouth  of  three  branches  or  small 
rivers  and  having  a  gravelly  foundation. 

"  We  went  down  about  two  miles  to  examine  the  course 
of  the  river  which  is  straight  with  many  currents  and  full 
of  rocks  and  rapids.  We  crossed  it,  though  the  water  was 
high,  which  induced  me  to  beheve  the  canoes  would  easily 
pass,  but  this  was  not  effected  without  difficulty. 

"  Besides  these  rapids  we  met  with  others,  but  the  water 
being  more  shallow  and  the  current  smoother,  we  passed 
them  easily.  We  then  found  the  water  very  deep  and 
mountains  rising  on  both  sides.  After  proceeding  ten 
miles  we  came  to  a  fall  in  the  river  which  arrested  our 
progress  and  compelled  us  to  go  ashore  and  desist  from 
any  further  attempt."* 

On  returning  to  his  men  (May  24,  1754)  he  learned  from 
friendly  Indians,  sent  to  him  by  his  ally  the  Half-King, 
Tanacharison,  that  the  French,  rapidly  marching  toward 
him  and  now  near  at  hand,  were  resolved  on  an  encounter. 
He  took  a  favorable  position  at  a  level  spot  in  a  glade,  near 
a  creek,  and  amid  gently  rising  hills.    The  glade  was  known 

*This  extract  is  from  a  journal  of  Washington's,  which  was 
taken  by  the  French  at  the  battle  of  the  Monongahela,  and  parts  of 
which  were  published  at  Paris,  in  1756. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  177 

as  "  The  Great  Meadows."  "  I  hurried  to  this  place,"  says 
he,  **  as  a  convenient  spot.  We  have,  with  nature's  as- 
sistance, made  a  good  intrenchment,  and  by  clearing  the 
bushes  out  of  these  meadows  prepared  a  charming  field  for 
an  encounter."* 

Mr.  Gist,  who  now  visited  the  camp,  reported,  that  the 
day  before  (May  27,  1754),  at  his  plantation,  thirteen  miles 
distant,  he  had  seen  M.  La  Force,  a  French  officer,  with 
fifty  men,  whose  footsteps  he  traced  to  a  spot  five  miles 
from  the  Great  Meadows.  Seventy-five  of  Washington's 
men  were  sent  in  pursuit  but  could  not  find  the  French 
roving  party. 

Tanacharison,  together  with  a  number  of  his  warriors, 
was  but  six  miles  from  the  spot.  He  also  sent,  after  8 
o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  same  day,  intelligence  of  a 
French  detachment's  being  near.  With  forty  of  his  men. 
Colonel  Washington,  at  once,  before  10  o'clock,  hastened 
to  the  Indian  camp,  regardless  of  a  heavy  rain  and  a  night 
of  intense  darkness  and  of  obstacles  offered  by  an  almost 
impenetrable  forest.  "  We  were,"  says  he,  "  frequently 
tumbled  one  over  another,  and  often  so  lost  that  fifteen 
or  twenty  minutes'  search  would  not  find  the  path  again."f 

At  early  dawn  he  met  in  council  with  his  Indian  ally. 
It  was  agreed  to  unite  in  an  attack  upon  the  enemy; 
Washington  to  be  on  the  right  and  Tanacharison  on  the 
left. 

The  French  were  soon  traced  to  a  secluded  nook 
among  rocks  half  a  mile  distant  from  the  common  road. 
They  were  surprised  in  their  lurking  place.  They  were 
attacked   (May  28,    1754).     And  in  the   skirmish  which 

*  Letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddie,  from  Great  Meadows,  May  27, 
1754. 
t  Letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddie,  May  29,  1754. 
12 


178  WASHINGTON. 

ensued,  and  which  lasted  about  fifteen  minutes,  the  French 
party  was  defeated,  eleven  of  their  number  being  killed 
and  one  wounded.  Twenty-one  were  captured.  Of  Wash- 
ington's party  only  one  was  killed  and  two  or  three  were 
wounded.  The  Indians  sustained  no  loss,  as  the  enemy's 
fire  was  aimed  exclusively  at  the  band  led  by  Washington. 
The  prisoners  were  forthwith  sent  to  Governor  Dinwiddie. 

Of  the  slain  among  the  French  one  was  their  com- 
mander, M.  de  Jumonville.  And  as  the  alleged  particulars 
of  his  death  have  given  cause  to  an  unfortunate  and  false 
representation  of  the  fact,  and  as  French  writers  have,  in 
works  of  history,  biography,  and  poetry,*  put  on  record 
sentiments  which  would  detract  from  the  fair  fame  of 
Washington,  it  is  proper  that  the  means  should  be  fur- 
nished for  his  vindication. 

It  has  been  said  that  Jumonville,  having  been  surprised 
and  twice  fired  upon  by  the  EngUsh,  "  made  a  sign  that 
he  was  the  bearer  of  a  letter  from  his  commandant,"  and 
that  "  he  caused  the  summons  to  be  read,  but  the  reading 
was  not  finished  when  the  English  repeated  their  fire,  and 
killed  him."t  It  has  been  said  that  "  the  EngUsh  ranged 
in  a  circle  round  him,  listened  to  the  representations  which 
he  came  to  make."  "They  assassinated  Jumonville  and 
immolated  eight  soldiers,  who  fell  bleeding  by  the  side  of 
their  chief."  "  The  detachment  of  the  English  who  com- 
mitted this  atrocity  was  commanded  by  Washington. 
This  officer,  who  afterward  displayed  the  purest  virtues 
of  the  warrior,  the  citizen,  and  the  sage,  was  then  no  more 

*M.  Thomas  composed  and  published,  in  1759,  a  poem  on  the 
subject,  remarkable  for  its  extravagance,  entitled  "  L'Assassinat  de 
M.  de  Jumonville,  en  Amerique,  et  la  Vengeance  de  ce  Muertre." 

t  M.  Flassan's  "  Histoire  de  la  Diplom.  FranQaise."  Tom.  VI, 
p.  28.     Paris,  181 1. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  179 

than  twenty-two  years  old.  He  could  not  restrain  the 
wild  and  undisciplined  troops  who  marched  under  his 
orders."*  Many  other  French  writers  have  reiterated  this 
representation  and  have  indulged  in  strictures  marked 
with  great  severity.  But  eloquence  and  poetry  have  on 
this  occasion  been  expended  upon  a  fictitious  scene. 

The  origin  of  the  false  picture  may  be  traced  to  a  Can- 
adian, Mouceau,  one  of  Jumonville's  party,  who  escaped 
from  the  scene  of  the  engagement  and  to  some  savages 
who  said  that  they  were  present  with  the  French.  But 
no  savages  whatever  were  seen  with  Jumonville  at  the 
time,  and  Mouceau's  account  has  no  confirmation  from 
any  source. 

When  Washington  first  heard  of  the  allegation,  he  wrote 
a  letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddie,  and  declared  that  the 
report  was  "  absolutely  false."  "  These  officers,"  says  he, 
alluding  to  Major  Drouillon  and  M.  La  Force,  who  were 
among  the  captives  on  the  occasion,  "  pretend  they  were 
coming  on  an  embassy ;  but  the  absurdity  of  this  pretext 
is  too  glaring,  as  you  will  see  by  the  instructions  and 
summons  inclosed.  Their  instructions  were  to  recon- 
noiter  the  country,  roads,  creeks,  and  the  like,  as  far  as 
the  Potomac,  which  they  were  about  to  do. 

*'  These  enterprising  men  were  purposely  chosen  out 
to  procure  intelligence  which  they  were  to  send  back  by 
some  brisk  dispatches,  with  the  mention  of  the  day  that 
they  were  to  serve  the  summons,  which  could  be  with 
no  other  view  than  to  get  a  sufficient  reinforcement  to 
fall  upon  us  immediately  after.  This,  with  several  other 
reasons,  induced  all  the  officers  to  beheve  firmly  that  they 
were   sent  as   spies  rather  than  anything  else,  and  has 

♦  M.  Lacretelle's  "  Hist,  de  France."  Tom.  II,  p.  234.  Paris, 
1809. 


180  WASHINGTON. 

occasioned  my  detaining  them  as  prisoners,  though  they 
expected,  or  at  least  had  some  faint  hope,  that  they  should 
be  continued  as  ambassadors. 

"  They,  finding  that  we  were  encamped,  instead  of  com- 
ing up  in  a  public  manner,  sought  out  one  of  the  most 
secret  retirements,  fitter  for  a  deserter  than  an  ambassa- 
dor to  encamp  in,  and  stayed  there  two  or  three  days, 
sending  spies  to  reconnoiter  our  camp,  as  we  are  told, 
though  they  deny  it.  Their  whole  body  moved  back  near 
two  miles ;  and  they  sent  ofif  two  runners  to  acquaint  Con- 
trecceur  with  our  strength  and  where  we  were  encamped. 
Now,  thirty-six  men  would  almost  have  been  a  retinue 
for  a  princely  ambassador  instead  of  a  petit. 

"  Why  did  they,  if  their  designs  were  open,  stay  so  long 
within  five  miles  of  us  without  delivering  their  message 
or  acquainting  me  with  it?  Their  waiting  could  be  with 
no  other  design  than  to  get  detachments  to  enforce  the 
summons  as  soon  as  it  was  given. 

"  They  had  no  occasion  to  send  out  spies,  for  the  name 
of  an  ambassador  is  sacred  among  all  nations ;  but  it  was 
by  the  track  of  those  spies  that  they  were  discovered 
and  that  we  got  intelligence  of  them.  They  would  not 
have  retired  two  miles  back  without  delivering  the  sum- 
mons and  sought  a  skulking-place  (which,  to  do  them 
justice,  was  done  with  great  judgment),  but  for  some 
special  reason.  Besides,  the  summons  is  so  insolent,  and 
savors  so  much  of  gasconade,  that  if  two  men  only  had 
come  to  deliver  it  openly,  it  would  have  been  too  great 
an  indulgence  to  send  them  back."* 

In  two  other  letters  to  the  Governor,  he  refers  to  the 
subject.     "  I  have  heard,"  says  he,  "  since  they  went  away, 

♦Letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddie,  from  the  camp  at  the  Great 
Meadows,  May  29,  1754. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  181 

that  they  should  say  they  called  to  us  not  to  fire;  but 
that  I  know  to  be  false,  for  I  was  the  first  man  that  ap- 
proached them  and  the  first  whom  they  saw;  and  imme- 
diately upon  it,  they  ran  to  their  arms  and  fired  briskly 
till  they  were  defeated."  "These  deserters  corroborate 
what  the  others  said  and  we  suspected.  La  Force's  party 
were  sent  out  as  spies,  and  were  to  show  that  summons 
if  discovered  or  overpowered  by  a  superior  party  of 
ours."* 

In  his  journal  which  was  taken  by  the  French  and 
published  at  Paris,  he  says :  *'  They  pretend  that  they 
called  to  us  as  soon  as  we  were  discovered,  which  is  abso- 
lutely false;  for  I  was  at  the  head  of  the  party  in  ap- 
proaching them,  and  I  can  affirm  that  as  soon  as  they 
saw  us  they  ran  to  their  arms  without  calling,  which  I 
should  have  heard  had  they  done  so." 

The  Half-King,  expressing  his  opinion  of  the  real  inten- 
tions of  Jumonville  and  his  party,  said  that  they  had 
''  bad  hearts,"  and  that  they  "  never  designed  to  come 
but  in  a  hostile  manner." 

The  fate  of  Jumonville  surely  cannot,  in  the  face  of 
Washington's  arguments  and  averment,  be  termed  an  '^  as- 
sassination," without  an  utter  disregard  both  of  the  im- 
port of  the  word  and  of  the  claims  of  truth.  And  it  is 
incumbent  upon  grave  historians  and  biographers  of 
France  to  cease  from  reiterating  and  perpetuating  so  flag- 
rant a  falsehood,  calculated  to  tarnish  the  character  of 
one  whose  name  History  has  enrolled  among  those  of 
the  wisest  and  the  best  that  have  adorned  humanity. 

♦Letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddle,  without  date;  and  a  letter  to 
him.  dated  Great  Meadows,  June  lo,  1754. 


CHAPTER  III. 

WASHINGTON'S  CAPITULATION  OF  FORT  NECESSITY. 

1754. 

WASHINGTON  was  now  encamped  at  the  Great 
Meadows.      Colonel   Fry,  who  had   long  been 
prevented  by  sickness   from  joining  him,   died 
at  Wills  Creek  on  the  last  day  of  May  (1754) ;  and  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel  Washington,  next  to  him   in   rank,   suc- 
ceeded in  command. 

A  pleasing  moral  and  religious  association  with  Wash- 
ington and  his  men  at  their  Fort  Necessity  is  ''  his  custom 
to  have  prayers  in  the  camp."  His  affectionate  friend,  the 
Hon.  William  Fairfax,  of  Belvoir,  wrote  to  him  while 
at  the  Great  Meadows :  "  I  will  not  doubt  your  having 
public  prayers  in  the  camp,  especially  when  the  Indian 
families  are  your  guests;  that  they,  seeing  your  plain 
manner  of  worship,  may  have  their  curiosity  excited  to 
be  informed  why  we  do  not  use  the  ceremonies  of  the 
French,  which,  being  well  explained  to  their  understand- 
ing, will  more  and  more  dispose  them  to  receive  our 
baptism  and  unite  in  strict  bonds  of  cordial  friendship." 

As  to  religious  influences  upon  the  red  men,  which 
may  have  been  exerted  in  this  manner,  we  are  not  in- 
formed, but  the  fact  of  there  being  stated  religious  ser- 
vices at  the  camp  is  well  known.  A  public  recognition 
of  the  providence  of  God,  and  of  the  duty  of  prayer  to 
him,  was  the  rule  of  Washington  throughout  his  military 
career. 

(182) 


UFE  AND  TIMES.  183 

A  trial  of  his  principles  and  a  severe  test  of  his  forti- 
tude and  prudence  occurred  at  this  time. 

The  brave  officers  of  his  little  band,  while  they  were 
encountering  the  peculiar  trials  of  wilderness  warfare, 
were  so  very  poorly  compensated,  in  comparison  with 
officers  of  the  King's  troops,  that  dissatisfaction,  murmur- 
ings,  and  at  length  loud  complaints  ensued.  Then  fol- 
lowed as  a  natural  consequence  irrepressible  emotions  of 
jealousy  and  threats  of  abruptly  abandoning  the  service. 
It  was  a  crisis  which  called  for  the  exercise  of  great  tact 
and  talent.  But  the  emergency  served  to  exemplify  the 
sterling  qualities  of  the  future  Father  of  his  Country.  In 
letters  to  the  Governor,  he  set  forth,  with  great  earnest- 
ness and  in  explicit  terms,  the  fact,  the  causes,  and  the 
only  effectual  remedy  of  the  discontent.  And  at  the  same 
time  he  quieted,  in  a  good  measure,  the  prevailing  turbu- 
lence by  skillfully  touching  those  chords  in  the  hearts  of 
his  comrades  which  he  well  knew  would  respond  to  senti- 
ments of  honor,  patriotism,  and  loyalty. 

[Washington  wrote  May  i8,  1754,  to  Dinwiddle  of  com- 
plaint by  the  officers  of  "  the  committee's  resolves,"  and 
of  finding  himself  inclined  "to  second  their  just  griev- 
ances." Nothing,  he  said,  prevented  their  throwing  up 
their  commissions  except  the  near  danger  from  the  French. 
The  committee  had  refused  to  make  their  pay  reasonable, 
but  had  allowed  a  gratuity,  and  the  officers  preferred  to 
give  their  services,  taking  neither  the  gratuity  nor  the 
scant  pay.  For  himself  Washington  said :  "  Giving  up  my 
commission  is  quite  contrary  to  my  intention.  But  let 
me  serve  voluntarily ;  then  I  will,  with  the  greatest  pleas- 
ure in  life,  devote  my  services  to  the  expedition  without 
any  other  reward  than  the  satisfaction  of  serving  my 
country;  but  to  be  slaving  dangerously  for  tHe  shadow 
of  pay,  through  woods,  rocks,  mountains, —  I  would  rather 


IM  WASHINGTON, 

prefer  the  great  toil  of  a  daily  laborer  and  dig  for  a  main- 
tenance, provided  I  were  reduced  to  the  necessity,  than 
serve  upon  such  ignoble  terms  "  [as  "  the  present  pay," 
hardly  more  than  half  what  was  paid  elsewhere]  ;  ''  the 
most  trifling  pay  that  ever  was  given  to  English  officers," 
with  "  the  glorious  allowance  of  solider's  diet  —  a  pound 
of  pork,  with  bread  in  proportion,  per  day."  Dinwiddle 
expressed  great  surprise  and  concern  to  find  Washington 
"countenancing  in  any  sort,  the  discontent  that  could 
never  be  more  unreasonable  or  pernicious  than  at  present." 
To  this  Washington  replied  that  when  he  was  informed 
that  the  pay  of  a  colonel  was  to  be  only  fifteen  shillings 
a  day,  and  of  a  lieutenant-colonel  only  twelve  shillings 
and  sixpense,  the  fact  that  it  was  "  less  than  the  British  " 
(by  nearly  one-half),  led  him  to  acquaint  Colonel  Fairfax 
with  his  intention  of  resigning,  and  that  he  was  dissuaded 
from  doing  so  by  the  promise  of  Colonel  Fairfax  "  to 
represent  the  trifling  pay  "  in  the  proper  quarter  and  have 
it  enlarged.  The  number  that  applied  for  commissions, 
he  said,  would  not  have  been  troublesomely  large,  if  the 
difficulties  that  would  attend  a  campaign  had  been  known 
to  others  as  they  were  known  to  him.  Not  that  he  would 
resign,  he  said,  because  of  any  difficulties.  "  For  my  own 
part  I  can  answer,"  he  declared,  "  I  have  a  constitution 
hardy  enough  to  encounter  and  undergo  the  most  severe 
trials,  and  I  flatter  myself,  resolution  to  face  what  any 
man  durst,  as  shall  be  proved  when  it  comes  to  the  test, 
which  I  beHeve  we  are  on  the  borders  of. 

"  There  is  nothing,  sir  (I  believe),  than  that  the  officers 
on  the  Canada  expedition  [projected  by  General  Shirley 
in  1746,  during  the  previous  war  with  France]  had  British 
pay  allowed  whilst  they  were  in  the  service.  Therefore  as 
this  can't  be  allowed,  suffer  me  to  serve  as  a  volunteer, 
which  I  assure  you,  will  be  the  next  reward  to  British 


UFE  AND  TIMES,  185 

pay;  for  as  my  services,  so  far  as  I  have  knowledge,  will 
equal  those  of  the  best  officer,  I  make  it  a  point  of  honor 
not  to  serve  for  less  and  accept  a  medium.  Nevertheless 
I  have  communicated  your  Honor's  sentiments  to  them 
[the  officers  serving  with  him],  and  as  far  as  I  could  put 
on  the  hypocrite,  set  forth  the  advantages  that  may  ac- 
crue, and  advised  them  to  accept  the  terms,  as  a  refusal 
might  reflect  dishonor  on  their  character,  leaving  it  to 
the  world  to  assign  what  reasons  they  please  for  their 
quitting  tne  service.  They  have  promised  to  consider  of 
it  and  give  your  Honor  an  answer,  though  I  really  be- 
lieve there  are  some  that  will  not  remain  long  without  an 
alteration. 

"  I  believe  it  is  well  known  that  we  have  been  at  the 
expense  of  regimentals,  and  it  is  still  better  known,  that 
under  an  indispensable  necessity  of  purchasing  for  this 
expedition,  regimentals  and  every  other  necessary  were 
not  to  be  bought  for  less  Virginia  currency  than  British 
officers  could  get  for  sterHng  money. 

"We  are  debarred  the  pleasure  of  good  living;  which, 
sir  (I  dare  say  with  me  you  will  concur),  to  one  who  has 
always  been  used  to  it,  must  go  somewhat  hard,  to  be 
confined  to  a  little  salt  provision  and  water,  and  do  duty, 
hard,  laborious  duty,  that  is  almost  inconsistent  with  that 
of  a  soldier,  and  yet  the  same  reductions  (of  pay)  as  if 
we  were  allowed  to  live  luxuriously.  My  pay,  according 
to  the  British  establishment  and  common  exchange,  is 
near  twenty-two  shillings  per  day;  in  the  room  of  that 
the  committee  (for  I  can't  in  the  least  imagine  your  Honor 
had  any  hand  in  it)  has  provided  twelve  shillings  and  six- 
pense;  so  long  as  the  service  requires  me,  whereas  one- 
half  of  the  other  is  ascertained  to  British  officers  forever. 
If  we  should  be  fortunate   enough  to  drive  the  French 


186  WASHINGTON. 

from  the  Ohio,  our  pay  will  not  be  sufficient  to  discharge 
our  first  expenses. 

"  I  would  not  have  your  Honor  imagine  from  this  that 
I  have  said  all  these  things  to  have  the  pay  increased,  but 
to  justify  myself  and  show  your  Honor  that  our  com- 
plaints are  not  frivolous,  but  are  founded  upon  strict 
reason.  For  my  own  part,  it  is  a  matter  almost  indif- 
ferent whether  I  serve  for  full  pay  or  as  a  generous  vol- 
unteer. Indeed,  did  my  circumstances  correspond  with 
my  inclination,  I  should  not  hesitate  a  moment  to  prefer 
the  latter;  for  the  motives  that  led  me  here  were  pure  and 
noble ;  I  had  no  view  of  acquisition  but  that  of  honor,  by 
serving  faithfully  my  King  and  country." 

Washington  having  thus  answered  Dinwiddie's  criti- 
cism of  his  report  of  complaints,  and  added  an  account  of 
the  battle  with  the  Jumonville  detachment,  further  says: 
"  I  shall  expect  every  hour  to  be  attacked,  and  by  unequal 
numbers,  which  I  must  withstand  if  there  are  five  to  one 
*  *  *  .  Your  Honor  may  depend  I  will  not  be  sur- 
prised, let  them  come  at  what  hour  they  will;  and  this  is 
as  much  as  I  can  promise.  But  my  best  endeavors  shall 
not  be  wanting  to  deserve  more.  I  doubt  not  but  if  you 
hear  I  am  beaten,  you  will  at  the  same  time  hear  that  we 
have  done  our  duty  in  fighting  as  long  as  there  was  a 
possibility  of  hope. 

"  I  have  sent  Lieutenant  West  to  conduct  the  prisoners 
in.  I  have  showed  them  [the  two  French  officers]  all 
the  respect  I  could,  and  have  given  some  necessary 
clothing,  by  which  I  have  disfurnished  myself;  for  having 
brought  no  more  than  two  or  three  shirts  from  Wills 
Creek,  that  we  might  be  light,  I  was  ill  provided  to  fur- 
nish them." 

The  revelations  of  character  in  this  episode  show  a 
preparation,  a  score  of  years  before  the  event,  for  the 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  187 

stand  taken  by  Washington  when  he  was  chosen  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  army  of  the  United  Colonies,  and 
the  condition  that  he  made  that  he  should  have  his  ex- 
penses paid,  and  beyond  that  should  not  be  upon  a  footing 
of  pay  for  his  services.] 

Another  incident  occurred  soon  after  which  he  con- 
trolled with  the  consummate  skill  of  an  experienced 
master  in  the  management  of  human  passions. 

It  was  a  rule  adopted  by  the  British  ministry,  in  order- 
ing military  affairs  in  the  Colonies,  that  officers  with  royal 
commissions  should  take  precedence  of  all  others.  The 
operation  however  of  the  principle  involved  in  this  always 
tended  to  provoke  jealousy  and  create  discord. 

When  an  independent  company  of  a  hundred  men  un- 
der command  of  Captain  Mackay,  who  had  a  royal  com- 
mission, went  from  South  Carolina  to  the  Great  Meadows, 
a  case  presented  itself  which  was  exceedingly  embarrassing. 
According  to  the  estabHshed  rule,  he  took  rank  of  Col- 
onel Washington,  who,  as  a  Colonial  officer,  had  received 
his  commission  from  Governor  Dinwiddie.  The  captain, 
although  on  terms  of  perfect  harmony  with  Washington, 
could  not  consistently  receive  orders  from  him  as  a  su- 
perior officer.  The  encampment  also  of  the  King's  cap- 
tain and  his  company  was  quite  apart  from  that  of  the 
troops  under  the  Colonial  colonel.  In  the  event  of  a  con- 
flict with  the  enemy  —  and  one  was  constantly  expected 
—  this  point  of  rank  might  be  the  cause  of  serious  evils. 

The  colonel  wrote  to  the  Governor,  asking  him 
promptly  to  decide  the  matter.  The  Governor  expressed 
doubts.  The  embarrassment  increased.  The  colonel's 
officers  and  men  could  not  brook  the  thought  of  their 
commander's  deposition  from  his  grade;  and  they  cher- 
ished angry  party  feelings,  which  must  have  led  to  ruinous 


188  WASHINGTON. 

results,  had  they  not  been  immediately  and  judiciously 
controlled. 

In  these  circumstances  Washington,  with  a  bold  hand, 
cut  what  could  not  be  united.  After  enlarging  and 
strengthening  his  Fort  Necessity,  he  resolved  to  leave 
Captain  Mackay  and  his  men  in  charge  of  it  and  to  pro- 
ceed with  his  regiment  to  the  Monongahela. 

He  accordingly  set  out  and  advanced  thirteen  miles  to 
Gist's  plantation.  But  before  he  reached  this  spot,  he 
met  with  unexpected  formidable  difficulties  in  making  a 
road  for  his  artillery  and  in  quieting  the  noisy  cupidity 
and  eluding  the  sly  artifices  of  pretended  Indian  alHes, 
who  proved  to  be  French  spies.  He  advised  with  his 
officers;  he  concluded,  instead  of  marching  farther,  to 
wait  there  for  the  enemy;  and  he  prepared  for  an  en- 
counter, as  he  learned  that  the  French  might  be  expected 
very  soon. 

At  his  request  Captain  Mackay  joined  him  with  his 
company.  Credible  accounts  of  the  enemy's  reinforce- 
ment and  great  strength,  it  was  agreed,  however,  rendered 
a  retreat  advisable.  The  troops  too  were  quite  exhausted 
with  fatigue,  having  borne  on  their  backs  heavy  burdens 
and  having  dragged  over  rough  roads  nine  swivels.  So 
poorly  moreover  were  they  supplied  with  horses  that  the 
colonel  himself,  having  dismounted  and  having  laden  his 
war-steed  with  public  stores,  went  on  foot,  sharing  the 
hardships  of  the  common  soldiers. 

The  troops  succeeded  with  great  difficulty  in  reaching 
the  Great  Meadows,  after  two  days'  march.  They  were 
compelled  to  halt  there  (July  i,  1754).  For  eight  days 
they  had  eaten  no  bread  and  had  taken  little  of  any  other 
food.  They  could  not  retreat  farther.  Here  then  it  was 
resolved  to  make  a  stand.  Trees  were  felled,  and  a  log 
breastwork  was  raised  at  the  fort. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  189 

Two  days  elapsed,  and  then  early  in  the  morning,  a 
sentinel,  wounded  by  the  enemy,  gave  the  signal  of  their 
approach.  Before  noon  distant  firing  was  heard,  and 
the  enemy,  consisting  of  French  troops  and  of  Indians, 
reached  a  wood  the  third  of  a  mile  from  Fort  Necessity. 
Washington  drew  up  his  regiment  of  305  men,  including 
officers,  and  waited  for  an  assault. 

For  nine  hours  —  the  rain,  without  intermission,  pour- 
ing down  in  torrents  —  both  parties  kept  up  a  desultory 
fire  of  small-arms.  By  that  time  the  French  had  killed 
all  the  horses  and  the  cattle  at  the  fort;  the  rain  had 
filled  all  the  trenches;  the  firearms  of  many  of  the  Vir- 
ginia troops  were  out  of  order ;  twelve  men  of  these  troops 
were  killed  and  forty-three  wounded. 

At  8  o'clock  the  French  proposed  a  parley.  Washing- 
ton declined ;  they  urged,  and  Captain  Vanbraam  was  then 
deputed  to  them.  Very  soon  he  brought  with  him  from 
M.  de  Villiers,  the  French  commander,  proposed  articles 
of  capitulation. 

The  overpowering  number  of  the  enemy  induced  Wash- 
ington to  come  to  terms.  He  consented,  after  a  modi- 
fication of  the  proposed  articles,  to  leave  his  fort  the  next 
morning  (July  4,  1754) ;  but  he  was  to  leave  it  with  the 
honors  of  war,  and  with  the  understanding  that  he  should 
surrender  nothing  but  his  artillery.  The  prisoners  of 
Jumonville's  party,  it  was  stipulated,  should  be  returned; 
and  for  a  year's  time  no  fort  should  be  built  at  this  post, 
or  anywhere  beyond  the  Alleghanies  on  lands  belonging 
to  France. 

The  articles  of  capitulation,  written  in  the  French  lan- 
guage, were  professedly  interpreted  by  Vanbraam.  But 
they  were  read  by  him  hastily  at  night  in  the  open  air  by 
the  flickering  light  of  a  candle  during  a  violent  rain.  The 
transaction  was  altogether  a  confused  and  hurried  one.  And 


190  WASHINGTON. 

so  bungling  and  blind  was  Vanbraam's  English  oral  inter- 
pretation—  the  interpretation  made  by  a  Dutchman,  im- 
perfectly acquainted  with  either  English  or  French  —  that 
not  perhaps  through  any  treachery  of  his,  but  rather 
through  the  vindictive  feelings  and  artful  contrivance  of 
M.  de  Villiers,  brother  of  Jumonville  —  Washington  and 
his  officers  were  betrayed  into  a  pledge  which  they  would 
never  have  consented  to  give,  and  an  act  of  moral  suicide 
which  they  could  never  have  deliberately  committed.  They 
understood  from  Vanbraam^s  interpretation  that  no  fort  was 
to  be  built  beyond  the  mountains  on  lands  belonging  to  the 
King  of  France;  but  the  terms  of  the  articles  are  ''neither 
in  this  place,  nor  beyond  the  mountains."*  They  under- 
stood, from  Vanbraam's  interpretation,  that  the  prisoners 
were  to  be  returned  who  had  been  taken  at  the  time  of  the 
death  of  Jumonville;  but  the  terms  of  the  article  are 
"prisoners  taken  at  Jumonville's  assassination." f 

The  terms  in  which  M.  de  Villiers  afterward  boasted  of 
his  diplomacy  on  the  occasion  are  at  once  an  exposure  of 
his  artifice  and  a  vindication  of  the  character  of  those  whom 
he  attempted  to  confound  with  self-condemnation. 

When  the  account  which  de  Villiers  gave  of  the  battle 
was  communicated  to  Washington  he  made  these  com- 
ments upon  it: 

"  It  is  very  extraordinary  and  not  less  erroneous  than 
inconsistent.  He  says  the  French  received  the  first  fire. 
It  is  well  known  that  we  received  it  at  600  paces'  distance. 
He  also  says  our  fears  obliged  us  to  retreat  in  a  most  dis- 
orderly manner  after  the  capitulation.  How  is  this  con- 
sistent with  his  other  account?  He  acknowledges  that  we 
sustained  the  attack  warmly  from  10  in  the  morning  un- 

*  Dans  ce  lieu-ci,  ni  dega  de  la  hauteur  des  terres. 

t  Les  prisonniers  fait  dans  I'assassinat  du  Sieur  de  Jumonville. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  191 

til  dark,  and  that  he  called  first  to  parley,  which  strongly 
indicates  that  we  were  not  totally  absorbed  in  fear.  If  the 
gentleman  in  his  account  had  adhered  to  the  truth  he  must 
have  confessed  that  we  looked  upon  his  offer  to  parley  as 
an  artifice  to  get  into  and  examine  our  trenches,  and  re- 
fused on  that  account,  until  they  desired  an  officer  might 
be  sent  to  them  and  gave  their  parole  for  his  return.  He 
might  also,  if  he  had  been  as  great  a  lover  of  truth  as  he 
was  of  vainglory,  have  said  that  we  absolutely  refused  their 
first  and  second  proposals  and  would  consent  to  capitulate 
on  no  other  terms  than  such  as  we  obtained. 

"  That  we  were  willfully  or  ignorantly  deceived  by  our 
interpreter  in  regard  to  the  word  '  assassination  ^  I  do  aver 
and  will  to  my  dying  moment;  so  will  every  officer  who 
was  present.  The  interpreter  was  a  Dutchman  little  ac- 
quainted with  the  English  tongue,  and  therefore  might  not 
advert  to  the  tone  and  meaning  of  the  word  in  English; 
but  whatever  his  motives  were  for  so  doing,  certain  it  is  he 
called  it  the  ^  death  '  or  the  '  loss  '  of  the  Sieur  Jumonville. 
So  we  received  and  so  we  understood  it  until,  to  our  great 
surprise  and  mortification,  we  found  it  otherwise  in  a  literal 
translation."* 

On  the  morning  (July  4,  1754)  after  the  signing  of  the 
articles  of  capitulation  Washington,  amid  the  beating  of 
his  drums  and  with  his  colors  flying,  set  out  for  Wills 
Creek.  He  had  however  scarcely  left  the  Meadows  when 
he  encountered  100  Indians,  allies  of  the  French,  who 
greatly  annoyed  him  with  their  hostile  purposes  and  their 
rapacity. 

On  reaching  Wills  Creek  he  hastened  with  Captain 
Mackay  to  the  Governor  at  Williamsburg,  whom  they  par- 
ticularly informed  of  the  events  of  their  expedition.    Both 

*  Writings  of  Washington,  vol.  II,  pp.  463,  464. 


192  WASHINGTON. 

the  Governor  and  council  highly  approved  of  the  conduct 
of  the  commander,  officers,  and  men.  The  House  of 
Burgesses  voted  thanks  to  them  for  their  bravery,  and  a 
pistole  —  a  Spanish  gold  coin  worth  about  $3.50  —  was 
presented  as  a  gratuity  to  every  soldier. 

The  Governor,  glowing  with  intense  feelings  of  loyalty, 
but  quite  uneducated  in  the  art  of  war,  projected  a  new  ex- 
pedition against  the  French  intruders.  Colonel  Washing- 
ton was  to  complete  the  companies  in  his  regiment  and  to 
hasten  then  as  fast  as  possible  to  Colonel  Innes  at  Wills 
Creek,  and  there  uniting  his  forces  with  the  troops  from 
North  Carolina  and  New  York  to  cross  the  mountains  and 
capture  Fort  Duquesne. 

This  project  Washington  earnestly  opposed  and  it  was 
abandoned. 

Among  the  many  striking  pictures  in  the  gallery  which 
illustrate  his  life  and  character  there  is  not  another  more 
expressive  of  his  distinguishing  traits.  His  letter  on  the 
subject  of  the  expedition,  addressed  to  the  Hon.  WilHam 
Fairfax,  then  a  member  of  the  council,  is  a  remarkable  pro- 
duction. His  manner  is  respectful  but  his  reasoning  severe. 
He  sets  forth  the  Governor's  scheme  as  unadvisable  and 
impracticable. 

[Governor  Dinwiddle's  orders  to  Washington  by  letter  of 
August  I,  1754,  were  to  get  his  regiment  completed  to 
300  men,  and  march  directly  to  Wills  Creek,  to  join 
other  forces,  in  order  to  immediately  march  over  the  Alle- 
ghany mountains,  and  either  dispossess  the  French  of 
their  fort  or  build  a  fort  for  British  occupation;  and  to 
have  no  3elay,  he  was  to  at  once  march  with  what  com- 
panies he  had  complete,  leaving  to  officers  remaining  to 
fill  up  the  other  companies  and  follow  with  them.  What 
ammunition  would  be  wanted  he  would  send  immediately. 
"  I  depend,"  the  Governor  said,  "  upon  your  former  usual 


PATRICK  HENRY. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  193 

diligence  and  spirit  to  encourage  your  people  to  be  active 
on  this  occasion ; "  and  again,  "  I  trust  much  to  your  dili- 
gence and  despatch  in  getting  your  regiment  to  Wills 
Creek  as  soon  as  possible." 

Washington  assured  Mr.  Fairfax  that  it  was  as  imprac- 
ticable to  get  the  regiment  to  Wills  Creek  as  It  would  be 
to  dispossess  the  French  of  their  fort;  both  were  morally 
impossible.  The  Governor  had  said  that  the  plan  was 
resolved  on,  ''  considering  the  state  of  our  forces ; "  and 
Washington  declares  that  "  the  state  of  our  forces  "  is 
the  most  decisive  reason  why  nothing  of  the  kind  can  be 
done;  the  men  at  present  are  in  circumstances  so  un- 
happy and  their  number  is  so  inconsiderable  compared 
with  the  number  of  the  enemy.  "  Before  our  force  can 
be  collected,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "  with  proper  stores  of 
provisions,  ammunition,  working  tools,  etc.,  it  would  bring 
on  a  season  in  which  horses  cannot  travel  over  the  moun- 
tains on  account  of  snows,  want  of  forage,  slipperiness 
of  the  roads,  high  waters,  etc. ;  neither  can  men  unused  to 
that  life,  live  there,  without  some  other  defense  from  the 
weather  than  tents.  This  I  know  of  my  own  knowledge, 
as  I  was  out  last  winter  from  the  ist  of  November  till 
some  time  in  January  [on  the  journey  to  the  Ohio,  Octo- 
ber 31,  1 753- January  11,  1754];  and  notwithstanding  I 
had  a  good  tent,  was  as  properly  prepared,  and  as  well 
guarded  in  every  respect  as  I  could  be  against  the  weather, 
yet  the  cold  was  so  intense  that  it  was  scarcely  support- 
able. I  believe,  out  of  the  five  or  six  men  that  went  with 
me,  three  of  them,  though  they  were  as  well  clad  as  they 
could  be,  were  rendered  useless  by  the  frost,  and  were 
obliged  to  be  left  upon  the  road.  But  the  impossibility 
of  supporting  us  with  provisions  is  alone  sufficient  to  dis- 
courage the  attempt. 

'*  I  shall  only  add  some  of  the  difficulties  which  we  are 
13 


194  WASHINGTON. 

particularly  subjected  to  in  the  Virginia  regiment.  And 
to  begin,  sir,  you  are  sensible  of  the  sufferings  our  soldiers 
underwent  in  the  last  attempt,  in  a  good  season,  to  take 
possession  of  the  Fork  of  the  Alleghany  and  Mononga- 
hela.  You  also  saw  the  disorders  those  sufferings  pro- 
duced among  them  at  Winchester  after  they  returned. 
They  are  still  fresh  in  their  memories,  and  have  an  irri- 
table effect.  Through  the  indiscretion  of  Mr.  Spitdorph 
[the  bearer  of  the  Governor's  orders]  they  got  some  inti- 
mation that  they  were  again  ordered  out,  and  it  immedi- 
ately occasioned  a  general  clamor,  and  caused  six  men  to 
desert  last  night. 

"  In  the  next  place  I  have  orders  to  complete  my  regi- 
ment, and  not  a  sixpence  is  sent  for  that  purpose.  Can 
it  be  imagined  that  subjects  fit  for  this  purpose,  who 
have  been  so  much  impressed  with,  and  alarmed  at,  our 
want  of  provisions  (which  was  a  main  objection  to  en- 
listing before),  will  more  readily  engage  now  without 
money,  than  they  did  before  with  it  ?  We  were  then  from 
the  1st  of  February  till  the  ist  of  May,  and  could  not 
complete  our  300  men  "by  40 ;  and  the  officers  suffered  so 
much  by  having  their  recruiting  expenses  withheld,  that 
they  unanimously  refuse  to  engage  in  that  duty  again, 
without  they  are  refunded  for  the  past,  and  a  sufficient 
allowance  made  them  in  the  future. 

"  I  have  in  the  next  place  (to  show  the  state  of  the 
regiment)  sent  you  a  report  by  which  you  will  see  what 
great  deficiencies  there  are  of  men,  arms,  tents,  kettles, 
screens  (which  was  a  fatal  want  before),  bayonets,  car- 
touch-boxes,  etc.,  etc. 

"Again,  were  our  men  ever  so  wilHng  to  go,  for  want 
of  the  proper  necessaries  of  life,  they  are  unable  to  do  it. 
The  chief  part  are  almost  naked,  and  scarcely  a  man  has 
either  shoes,  stockings,  or  hat.     These  things  the  mer- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  195 

chants  will  not  credit  them  for.  The  country  has  made 
no  provision;  they  have  not  money  themselves;  and  it 
cannot  be  expected  that  the  officers  will  engage  for  them 
again  personally,  having  suffered  greatly  already  on  this 
head;  especially  now,  when  we  have  all  the  reason  in  the 
world  to  believe  they  will  desert  whenever  they  have  an 
opportunity.  There  is  not  a  man  that  has  a  blanket  to 
secure  him  from  cold  or  wet. 

"Ammunition  is  a  material  article,  and  that  is  to  come 
from  Williamsburg,  or  wherever  the  Governor  can  pro- 
cure it  *  *  *  .  The  promise  of  those  traders  who 
offer  to  contract  for  large  quantities  of  flour,  are  not  to 
be  depended  upon  *  *  *  .  If  we  depend  on  Indian 
assistance,  we  must  have  a  large  quantity  of  proper  In- 
dian goods  to  reward  their  services  and  make  them 
presents.  It  is  by  this  means  alone  that  the  French  com- 
mand such  an  interest  among  them,  and  that  we  had  so 
few.  This,  with  the  scarcity  of  provisions,  was  proverbial ; 
[and]  would  induce  them  to  ask,  when  they  were  to  join, 
if  we  meant  to  starve  them  as  well  as  ourselves."] 

As  he  was  then  little  more  than  twenty-two  years  of  age 
(August,  1754)  his  firm  opposition  to  the  will  of  his  su- 
periors might  seem  presumptuous,  but  so  proper  was  the 
conduct  of  his  procedure,  and  so  cogent  and  conclusive 
were  his  reasonings,  that  the  Governor  and  council  yielded 
to  the  control  of  his  master-spirit. 

Yet  the  fire  of  the  Governor's  flaming  zeal  was  not  ex- 
tinguished. As  the  British  government  granted  to  him 
£10,000  sterling,  with  the  promise  of  an  additional  grant 
of  the  same  amount  and  2,000  stand  of  arms,  and  as  the 
Burgesses  voted  £20,000  for  the  public  exigencies  his  de- 
termination led  him  to  form  yet  another  scheme. 

[There  was  however  a  very  serious  breach  between  the 


196  WASHINGTON. 

Governor  and  the  Burgesses,  the  significance  of  which 
it  is  important  to  note.     Mr.  Sparks  says  here: 

"  The  Governor  was  destined  to  struggle  with  difficulties, 
and  to  have  his  hopes  defeated.  The  Assembly  were  so 
perverse,  as  not  to  yield  to  all  his  demands,  and  he  never 
ceased  to  complain  of  their  '  republican  way  of  thinking,' 
and  to  deplore  their  want  of  respect  for  the  authority  of 
his  of^ce  and  the  prerogative  of  the  crown.  He  had 
lately  prorogued  them,  as  a  punishment  for  their  ob- 
stinacy, and  written  to  the  ministry  that  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people  seemed  to  him  infatuated,  and  that 
he  was  satisfied  '  the  progress  of  the  French  would  never 
be  effectually  opposed,  but  by  means  of  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment to  compel  the  Colonies  to  contribute  to  the  common 
cause  independently  of  assemblies.'  When  the  Burgesses 
came  together  again,  however,  he  was  consoled  by  their 
good  nature  in  granting  £20,000  for  the  public  service; 
and  he  soon  received  i  10,000  in  specie  from  the  govern- 
ment in  England  for  the  same  object. 

Thus  encouraged  he  formed  new  plans,  and  as  the  gift 
of  i  10,000  was  under  his  control  he  could  appropriate  it 
as  he  pleased."] 

He  resolved  to  raise  an  army  consisting  of  ten  independ- 
ent companies  of  100  men  each.  No  officer  of  the  late  Vir- 
ginia regiment  was  to  hold  rank  higher  than  a  captain,  and 
in  addition  to  this  injudicious  and  unjust  provision  every 
Colonial  captain  was  to  yield  precedence  to  a  captain  royally 
commissioned.  By  this  scheme  Washington  was  to  rank 
but  as  the  captain  of  a  company  and  was  to  be  the  inferior 
of  certain  officers  who  had  been  under  his  command.  With 
due  regard  to  self-respect  he  could  not  thus  do  violence  to 
his  sentiments  as  a  man  and  a  soldier.  He  resigned  his 
commission. 

With  a  view  to  prosecute  the  war  the  King  soon  after 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  197 

appointed  Governor  Sharpe,  of  Maryland,  his  Commander- 
in-Chief,  and  Colonel  Fitzhugh,  at  General  Sharpe's  in- 
stance, earnestly  requested  Washington  to  return  to  the 
army.  "  I  am  confident,"  said  Colonel  Fitzhugh,  ''  that  the 
general  has  a  very  great  regard  for  you  and  will  by  every 
circumstance  in  his  power  make  you  happy.  For  my  part 
I  shall  be  extremely  fond  of  your  continuing  in  the  ser- 
vice and  would  advise  you  by  no  means  to  quit  it.  In  re- 
gard to  the  independent  companies  they  will  in  no  shape 
interfere  with  you,  as  you  will  hold  your  post  during  their 
continuance  here,  and  when  the  regiment  is  reduced  will 
have  a  separate  duty." 

In  reply  to  this  Washington  wrote  with  great  respect 
but  in  a  tone  of  deep  emotion  and  in  terms  memorably  em- 
phatic :  *'  You  make  mention,"  said  he,  "  of  my  continuing 
in  the  service  and  retaining  my  colonel's  commission.  The 
idea  has  filled  me  with  surprise,  for  if  you  think  me  capable 
of  holding  a  commission  that  has  neither  rank  nor  emolu- 
ment annexed  to  it  you  must  entertain  a  very  contemptible 
opinion  of  my  weakness,  and  believe  me  to  be  more  empty 
than  the  commission  itself.  Besides,  sir,  if  I  had  time  I 
could  enumerate  many  good  reasons  that  forbid  all  thoughts 
of  my  returning,  and  which  to  you  or  any  other  person 
would,  upon  the  strictest  scrutiny,  appear  to  be  well 
founded.  I  must  be  reduced  to  a  very  low  command,  and 
subjected  to  that  of  many  who  have  acted  as  my  inferior 
officers.  In  short,  every  captain,  bearing  the  King's  com- 
mission, every  half-pay  ofBcer  or  others  appearing  with 
such  commission,  would  rank  before  me.  For  these  rea- 
sons I  choose  to  submit  to  the  loss  of  health  which  I 
have  already  sustained,  and  the  fatigue  I  have  undergone 
in  our  first  efforts  [without  the  reward  of  advancement, 
he  means],  rather  than  subject  myself  to  the  same  incon- 
veniences and  run  the  risk  of  a  second  disappointment. 


198  WASHINGTON. 

I  shall  at  least  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  I 
have  opened  the  way,  when  the  smallness  of  our  numbers 
exposed  us  to  the  attacks  of  a  superior  enemy;  that  I 
have  hitherto  stood  the  heat  and  brunt  of  the  day,  and 
escaped  untouched  in  time  of  extreme  danger;  and  that 
I  have  the  thanks  of  my  country  for  the  services  I  have 
rendered  it."* 

So  fully  was  he  aware  of  disingenuousness  and  unfair 
dealing  in  the  concocting  of  the  Governor's  extraordinary 
scheme  of  independent  companies  by  which  Colonial  su- 
perior officers  were  to  be  set  aside,  regardless  of  the  ser- 
vices which  they  had  rendered,  and  of  all  conventionalities 
of  military  life,  that  he  added  in  the  same  letter  to  Colonel 
Fitzhugh,  "  The  information  I  have  received  shall  not  sleep 
in  silence  that  those  peremptory  orders  from  home,  which 
you  say  could  not  be  dispensed  with',  for  reducing  the 
regiment  into  independent  companies,  were  generated  and 
hatched  at  Wills  Creek.  Ingenuous  treatment  and  plain 
dealing  I  at  least  expected.  It  is  to  be  hoped  the  project 
will  answer;  it  shall  meet  with  my  acquiescence  in  every- 
thing except  personal  services.  I  herewith  enclose  Gov. 
Sharpe's  letter,  which  I  beg  you  will  return  to  him,  with 
my  acknowledgments  for  the  favor  he  intended  me.  Assure 
him,  sir,  as  you  truly  may,  of  my  reluctance  to  quit  the 
service,  and  of  the  pleasure  I  should  have  received  in  at- 
tending his  fortunes.  Also  inform  him,  that  it  was  to 
obey  the  call  of  honor,  and  the  advice  of  my  friends,  that 
I  declined  it,  and  not  to  gratify  any  desire  I  had  to  leave 
the  military  line.  My  inclinations  are  strongly  bent  to 
arms."f 

*  Letter  to  Col.  William  Fitzhugh,  November  15,  1754- 
t  The  "  peremptory  orders  from  home  "  were  a  fiction,  as  was 
afterward  proved. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  199 

The  step  which  Washington  took  in  resigning  his  com- 
mission is  by  no  means  to  be  regarded  as  an  impulse  of 
extreme  sensitiveness,  or  of  wounded  pride.  In  the  meas- 
ure adopted  by  the  Governor,  there  was  involved  a  prin- 
ciple which  could  not  be  practically  sanctioned  by  the 
Colonies,  without  a  dereliction  of  self-respect,  as  well  as 
a  humiliating  indifference  to  the  claims  of  common  justice 
and  of  honor. 

Washington's  suspicion  of  unfairness  was  also  the  more 
manifest  as  the  King's  order  did  not  arrive  until  the  fol- 
lowing spring.  But  the  language  of  this  order  exhibited 
then,  in  a  stronger  light  than  ever,  the  odiousness  as  well 
as  unreasonableness  of  the  required  humihation.  "  All 
troops,"  says  the  order,  "  serving  by  commission  signed  by 
us,  or  by  our  general  commanding  in  chief  in  North 
America,  shall  take  rank  before  all  troops  which  may  serve 
by  commission  from  any  of  the  Governors,  Lieutenant  or 
Deputy  Governors,  or  President  for  the  time  being.  And 
it  is  our  further  pleasure  that  the  general  and  field  officers 
of  the  provincial  troops  shall  have  no  rank  with  the  general 
and  field  officers  who  serve  by  commission  from  us;  but 
that  all  captains  and  other  inferior  officers  of  our  forces, 
who  are  or  may  be  employed  in  North  America,  are  on  all 
detachments,  courts-martial,  and  other  duty  wherein  they 
may  be  joined  with  officers  serving  by  commission  from  the 
Governors,  Lieutenant  or  Deputy  Governors,  or  President 
for  the  time  being  of  the  said  provinces,  to  command  and 
take  post  of  the  said  provincial  officers  of  the  like  rank, 
though  the  commissions  of  the  said  provincial  officers  of 
like  rank  should  be  of  elder  date."* 

[As  Sharpe,  the  Governor  of  Maryland,  had  been  ap- 
pointed "  general  commanding-in-chief,"  the  indignity  of 

*  Order  of  the  King,  dated  St.  James's,  November  12,  1754. 


200  WASHINGTON. 

the  treatment  of  Washington  appointed  by  the  Governof 
of  Virginia,  the  "  Dominion "  Colony,  was  greater  than 
if  the  King's  commander-in-chief  had  been  an  eminent 
soldier.  The  animus  of  the  order  of  the  King  was  that 
of  thoroughly  rascal  malignity  toward  colonials  tainted 
with  "  republican  "  feeling,  such  as  Dinwiddie's  complaints 
had  referred  to.] 

The  natural  consequence  of  such  an  expression  of  royal 
authority  was,  as  might  have  been  expected,  the  alienation 
of  many  a  good  and  true  colonist's  loyal  feeling.  And  in 
the  American  heart  there  was  thus  fostered  more  and  more, 
by  innumerable  temptations  to  jealousy,  and  provocations 
to  an  indignant  sense  of  injustice  and  wrong,  that  deep, 
prevailing,  and  powerful  emotion  which  eventually  drove 
the  Colonies,  "appeahng  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world 
for  the  rectitude  of  their  intentions,"  to  assert  their  rights 
and  declare  their  national  independence. 

[An  incident  of  Washington's  experience  at  this  time 
was  the  refusal  of  Dinwiddle  to  execute  his  engagement, 
made  at  the  surrender  of  Fort  Necessity,  for  the  return 
to  the  French  of  the  prisoners  taken  in  the  Jumonville 
affair.  Dinwiddle  was  stupid  (in  the  EngHsh  sense  of 
that  word),  not  only  failing  to  see,  but  resolute  against 
seeing,  while  Washington  ever  had  the  quick  vision  of 
genius  and  determination  not  less  quick  to  act  upon  all 
the  light  he  had.  Dinwiddle  insisted  on  disregarding  the 
engagement  made  by  Washington,  because  of  captures 
which  the  French  had  made  at  a  later  date.  The  French 
were  holding  Captains  Stobo  and  Vanbraam,  as  hostages, 
for  the  return  of  the  two  French  officers,  Drouillon  and 
La  Force,  with  two  cadets  and  about  twenty  private  sol- 
diers. Dinwiddle  sent  proposals  to  the  French  for  the  re- 
turn of  Drouillon  and  the  two  cadets  in  exchange  for  Stobo 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  201 

and  Vanbraam;  and  was  refused.  La  Force  was  kept  in 
close  prison,  while  Drouillon  and  the  two  cadets  were  al- 
lowed to  go  at  large,  and  when  Washington  learned  this 
his  protest  to  Dinwiddie  was  as  indignant  as  it  was  honor- 
able, but  it  was  of  no  avail.  The  result  was  serious  to 
Stobo  and  Vanbraam,  thrust  into  prison  in  Quebec,  al- 
though the  former  managed  to  escape,  while  the  latter 
was  shipped  to  Europe  and  never  returned  to  Virginia.] 


CHAPTER  IV. 
DEFENSE  OF  THE  COLONIES. 

1754,  1755. 

THE  same  year  that  Washington  was  occupied  at  the 
Great  Meadows  resisting  French  encroachments 
there  was  held  at  Albany  a  convention  of  commis- 
sioners, convened  (June  19,  1754)  by  order  of  the  British 
Board  of  Trade,  with  a  view  to  conciliate  and  secure  as 
allies  of  Great  Britain  the  most  powerful  of  the  Indian 
tribes,  the  Six  Nations. 

These  were  New  York  tribes  of  the  Iroquois  and  con- 
sisted of  the  Senecas,  Mohawks,  Onondagas,  Oneidas, 
Cayugas,  and  Tuscaroras,  all  of  whom  spoke  the  same  lan- 
guage. An  ancient  confederacy  of  the  first  five  tribes  was 
formed  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century ;  and  the 
Tuscaroras,  driven  from  North  Carolina  in  1714,  joined  at 
that  period  their  Iroquois  brothers  in  New  York.  These 
six  kindred  nations  thus  leagued  were  very  formidable. 
And  as  they  were  implacable  enemies  of  the  Algonquin 
allies  of  the  French,  it  was  now  deemed  important  to  se- 
cure their  friendship  and  co-operation  on  the  eve  of  an- 
other war  with  France.  It  was  accordingly  proposed  to 
make  presents  to  them  and  effect  the  renewal  of  an  existing 
treaty. 

The  Colonies  represented  in  the  convention  were  those 
of  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Con- 
necticut, New  York,  and  Maryland.  The  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor of  Virginia  did  not  deem  it  advisable  to  send  dele- 

(202) 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  203 

gates,  preferring  to  take  an  independent,  and  as  he  thought, 
more  expeditious  course;  and  indulging  the  thought  that 
he  could  effect,  in  his  own  way,  "  a  peace  between  the  north- 
ern and  southern  Indians  and  a  strict  alliance  between  them 
and  all  British  subjects  on  the  Continent/'  It  was  the  vain 
and  illusive  hope  of  a  mind  unwisely  sanguine. 

The  delegates,  as  was  proposed,  held  conferences  with 
the  Indians  and  distributed  among  them  the  numerous  and 
gaudy  presents  which  the  several  Colonies  provided.  But 
they  received  from  the  eloquent  lips  of  the  Mohawk  sachem 
Hendrick  a  cutting  rebuke  for  the  prevailing  neglect  of 
warlike  defenses.  "  It  is  your  fault,  brethren,"  said  he, 
"  that  we  are  not  strengthened  by  conquest.  We  would 
have  gone  and  taken  Crown  Point  but  you  hindered  us. 
We  had  concluded  to  go  and  take  it,  but  we  were  told  that 
it  was  too  late,  and  that  the  ice  would  not  bear  us.  Instead 
of  this  you  burnt  your  own  fort  at  Saratoga  and  ran  away 
from  it,  which  was  a  shame  and  a  scandal.  Look  around 
your  country  and  see :  you  have  no  fortifications  about  you 
—  no,  not  even  to  this  city.  It  is  but  one  step  from  Canada 
hither  and  the  French  may  easily  come  and  turn  you  out 
of  your  doors.  You  are  desirous  that  we  should  open  our 
minds  and  our  hearts  to  you.  Look  at  the  French !  They 
are  men;  they  are  fortifying  everywhere.  But,  we  are 
ashamed  to  say  it,  you  are  like  women;  bare  and  open, 
without  any  fortifications." 

The  subject  of  devising  a  plan  of  colonial  union  and 
confederation  for  security  and  defense  was  submitted  to  the 
convention.  The  delegates  unanimously  agreed  that  such  a 
measure  was  "  absolutely  necessary,"  and  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  receive  proposed  schemes  and  to  digest  a  plan. 

A  distinguished  pre-eminence  in  the  convention  was  now 
won  by  a  delegate  from  Pennsylvania,  Benjamin  Franklin, 


204  WASHINGTON. 

the  committee  having  selected  and  approved  the  plan  which 
he  devised  and  having  recommended  its  adoption. 

The  whole  number  of  delegates  appointed  was  twenty- 
five,  every  one  of  whom  was  in  attendance.*  And  there 
were  among  them  a  number  of  the  master-spirits  of  the 
times  —  men  who  subsequently  exerted  a  memorable  in- 
fluence in  the  direction  of  political  affairs.  But  among 
them  all  there  was  not  one  other  around  whom  clustered 
destinies  so  remarkable  as  those  which  awaited  the  career 
of  Franklin.  With  his  manly  presence,  his  large  frame, 
his  ample  forehead,  and  his  expressive  countenance, 
mingling  blandness  with  firmness,  his  eye  sparkling  with 
intelligence,  and  his  lip  curved  with  good-nature,  he  ever 
was  a  conspicuous  object  of  attraction  and  kind  interest. 

And  his  personal  history  possessed  a  charm  from  its 
pleasing  illustration  of  the  true  secret  of  success  in  life. 

He  had  risen  from  poverty  and  obscurity  in  his  native 
city  of  Boston  to  great  prominence  among  the  politicians 
of  Pennsylvania  and  the  literary  and  scientific  men  of  his 
time.  And  he  had  accomplished  this  by  dint  of  his  ex- 
traordinary force  of  character.  His  forefathers  were 
Englishmen,  mechanics,  residing  in  the  village  of  Ecton, 
Northamptonshire.  All  his  brothers  were  put  to  trades 
in  Boston.     His  father,  a  man  of  strong  mind  and  solid 

*  The  delegates  were:  Theodore  Atkinson,  Richard  Wibird, 
Meshech  Weare,  and  Henry  Sherburne,  of  New  Hampshire;  Sam- 
uel Welles,  John  Chandler,  Thomas  Hutchinson,  Oliver  Partridge, 
and  John  Worthington,  of  Massachusetts;  William  Pitkin,  Roger 
Wolcott,  and  Elisha  Williams,  of  Connecticut;  Stephen  Hopkins 
and  Martin  Howard,  of  Rhode  Island;  James  Delancey,  Joseph 
Murray,  William  Johnson,  John  Chambers,  and  William  Smith,  of 
New  York;  John  Penn,  Richard  Peters,  Isaac  Norris,  and  Benja- 
min Franklin,  of  Pennsylvania;  Benjamin  Tasker  and  Abraham 
Barnes,  of  Maryland. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  205 

judgment,  who  migrated  to  America  in  the  year  1685,  was 
a  tallow-chandler  and  soap-boiler;  and  Benjamin,  the 
youngest  of  his  sons,  was  employed  in  cutting  candle- 
wicks,  filling  molds,  attending  shop,  and  going  on  errands. 
But  the  boy's  active  mind  could  not  long  brook  drudgery 
like  this.  He  was  apprenticed  to  his  brother  James,  a 
printer.  He  now  began  to  indulge  his  passion  for  litera- 
ture. He  wrote  ballads  and  songs,  which  his  brother 
printed,  and  which  he  was  sent  about  the  town  to  sell. 

To  a  newspaper  published  by  his  brother,  and  called 
The  New  England  Courant,  Benjamin  secretly  contrib- 
uted articles  which  were  well  received.  As  an  author, 
and  very  soon  himself  a  printer  and  editor,  he  now  rose 
rapidly  in  favor  with  the  public. 

He  removed  to  Philadelphia.  By  industry,  thrift,  and 
stern  integrity  of  character  he  accumulated  property.  He 
took  a  lively  interest  in  the  establishment  of  literary, 
scientific,  and  benevolent  institutions,  and  in  providing  a 
system  of  military  discipline  for  Pennsylvania.  He  made 
important  discoveries  in  science,  especially  in  relation  to 
electricity  and  lightning,  and  attracted  the  attention  of 
European  savants. 

He  was  chosen  clerk  to  the  General  Assembly  of  Penn- 
sylvania, was  appointed  postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  and 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  Provincial  Legislature.  He 
now  gave  his  thoughts  more  and  more  to  public  afifairs. 
In  the  year  1753  he  was  appointed  Postmaster-General 
of  America,  and  the  next  year  he  was  one  of  the  delegates 
from  Pennsylvania  to  the  Albany  Convention,  where  we 
now  find  him  with  his  plan  of  a  colonial  union. 

He  was  not  a  novice  as  a  politician  and  legislator.  The 
vital  importance  of  a  union  of  the  Colonies  he  had  already 
urged  in  a  spirited  article  published  in  his  paper.  The 
Pennsylvania   Gazette.     To  this  article  he   appended,   in 


206  WASHINGTON. 

his  favorite  style  of  speaking  by  symbols,  a  wood  cut 
which  became  a  very  popular  device  in  the  Revolutionary 
War  —  representing  a  snake  in  separate  parts,  the  parts 
designated  by  the  initial  letters  of  the  names  of  the  re- 
spective Colonies,  with  a  motto  in  large  capitals,  "JOIN 
OR  DIE." 

The  plan  proposed  a  general  government  to  be  admin- 
istered by  a  governor-general  appointed  and  supported  by 
the  King;  and  a  council  chosen  by  the  Colonial  As- 
semblies, for  ordering  all  Indian  treaties,  and  for  the 
defense,  support,  increase,  and  extension  of  the  Colonies 
—  the  plan  to  receive  the  sanction  of  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment. "  The  Colonies  so  united,"  he  justly  remarks, 
"  would  have  been  sufficiently  strong  to  defend  them- 
selves. There  would  then  have  been  no  need  of  troops 
from  England;  of  course  the  subsequent  pretext  for  tax- 
ing America,  and  the  bloody  contest  it  occasioned,  would 
have  been  avoided.  But  such  mistakes  are  not  new;  his- 
tory is  full  of  the  errors  of  states  and  princes. 

'  Look  round  the  habitable  world,  how  few 
Know  their  own  good,  or,  knowing  it,  pursue.'  "* 

Franklin's  plan,  with  a  few  modifications,  was  adopted 
by  the  convention;  and  there  were  appended  to  it  rea- 
sons and  motives  for  each  article.  But,  on  its  being  sub- 
mitted to  the  Assemblies,  it  was  rejected  by  them  all  on 
the  ground  of  its  savoring  too  much  of  royal  prerogative. 
And  when  it  was  received  in  England  by  the  Board  of 
Trade,  they  thought,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  was  quite 
too  deeply  tinctured  with  popular  privilege.  It  was 
therefore  not  even  submitted  to  the  notice  of  the  King. 

*  FrankHn's  "  Autobiography,"  in  his  Works,  vol.  I,  ch.  x,  p.  178. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  307 

•The  proposal  that  the  united  Colonies  should  be  their 
own  defenders,  without  the  aid  of  the  mother  country, 
was  viewed  with  suspicion  and  jealousy.  They  would 
thus  be  led,  it  was  supposed,  to  indulge,  unduly,  feelings 
of  self-importance  and  of  confidence  in  their  own  strength, 
and  perhaps,  as  was  apprehended,  grow  quite  too  military. 

There  was  devised  therefore  a  new  mode  of  accomplish- 
ing the  various  objects  had  in  view.  This  was  a  recourse 
to  occasional  meetings  of  the  Governors,  attended  by 
one  or  two  members  of  their  respective  councils  —  to  con- 
cert measures,  erect  forts,  and  raise  troops  —  and  to  be 
supplied  with  means  derived  from  a  tax  on  the  Colonies 
by  act  of  Parliament. 

Thus  the  cardinal  principle  on  which  turned  the  destiny 
of  a  mighty  empire  in  the  new  world  was  distinctly  set 
forth  at  that  time.  But  from  its  first  promulgation  to  the 
period  of  our  national  independence,  the  voice  of  the 
people  loudly  and  perseveringly  condemned  it,  refusing 
to  submit  to  any  measure  whatever  by  which  their  lib- 
erties would  be  impaired  by  taxation  without  representation. 

It  is  a  coincidence  w^orthy  of  being  noted  that  not  only 
the  same  year,  but  the  same  month,  that  dates  Washing- 
ton's engagement  in  his  first  important  military  opera- 
tions, by  which  he  was  prepared  for  the  part  he  was  to 
take  in  our  War  of  the  Revolution,  Franklin  was  busied 
with  his  plan,  which  was  the  embryo  of  our  national 
confederation  and  our  union  of  States.  It  was  on  the 
4th  day  of  July,  1754,  that  Washington  surrendered  Fort 
Necessity,  and  that  Franklin's  plan  was  considered;  and 
on  the  4th  day  of  July,  1776,  after  an  interval  of  just 
twenty-two  years,  AVashington  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Army  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  Franklin  was 
signing  the  Declaration  of  American  Independence! 

Franklin  was  twenty-six  years  older  than  Washington, 


208  WASHINGTON. 

being  born  January  6,  1706,  old  style ;  and  at  the  time  of 
the  Albany  Convention  he  was  at  the  age  of  forty-eight. 

Another  scheme  proposed  by  him  the  same  year,  with 
a  view  to  the  security  and  defense  of  the  Colonies  on  the 
Atlantic  border,  was  the  proposal  to  found  two  strong 
western  colonies. 

With  his  sagacious  mind  he  foresaw  and  confidently 
predicted  what  would  inevitably  result  from  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  region  which  the  western  colonies  were  to 
occupy.  "  The  great  country,"  said  he,  "  back  of  the 
Appalachian  mountains,  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio,  and 
between  that  river  and  the  lakes,  is  now  well  known,  both 
to  the  English  and  French,  to  be  one  of  the  finest  in 
North  America  for  the  extreme  richness  and  fertility  of 
the  land;  the  healthy  temperature  of  the  air  and  mildness 
of  the  climate ;  the  plenty  of  hunting,  fishing,  and  fowling ; 
the  facility  of  trade  with  the  Indians ;  and  the  vast  con- 
venience of  inland  navigation  or  water-carriage  by  the 
lakes  and  great  rivers  many  hundred  leagues  around. 

"  From  these  natural  advantages  it  must  undoubtedly 
—  perhaps  in  less  than  another  century  —  become  a  popu- 
lous and  powerful  dominion,  and  a  great  accession  of 
power  either  to  England  or  France."* 

It  was  his  scheme  therefore  to  anticipate,  frustrate,  and 
effectually  control  the  ambitious  purposes  of  the  French 
Government  and  at  the  same  time  to  secure  the  friend- 
ship and  trade  of  all  the  neighboring  powerful  Indian 
tribes. 

It  was  a  noble  scheme.  But  the  policy  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, dictated  by  an  undue  regard  to  the  interests  of  trade 
and  commerce,  was  to  occupy  the  Atlantic  coast  and  not 
the  interior  of  the  country ;  and  the  suspicion  and  jealousy 

*  Works  of  Franklin,  vol.  Ill,  p.  70. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  209 

which  frowned  upon  the  Albany  plan  of  union  assumed 
a  more  decided  expression  against  inland  settlements. 

The  British  Government  concluded  to  take  into  its  own 
hands  the  work  of  repelling  and  chastising  French  in- 
truders, and  to  accomplish  this  neither  by  a  colonial  union 
nor  by  inland  settlements.  It  resolved  however  to  adopt 
prompt  and  vigorous  measures  for  maintaining  its  claim 
to  the  Ohio  lands.  The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  were 
just  as  resolute  in  asserting  prior  claims.  The  settle- 
ment on  the  Ohio  being  calculated,  as  they  thought,  to 
despoil  them  of  the  harvest  of  their  Indian  trade,  to  break 
the  chain  of  their  communication  between  Canada  and 
Louisiana,  and  to  nip  the  flattering  promise  of  their  am- 
bitious projects,  the  Governor  of  Canada  had  written  to 
the  Governors  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  threaten- 
ing to  seize  all  British  subjects  who  encroached  upon  the 
Indian  trade. 

In  the  year  1753  the  French  seized  certain  British 
traders  found  among  the  Miamis  and  Piankeshaws,  or,  as 
they  were  called  by  the  English,  Twightwees.  Upon  this 
the  Twightwees,  allies  of  Great  Britain,  seized  several 
French  traders  and  sent  them  to  Pennsylvania  as  repris- 
als; but  at  the  same  time  they  expressed  great  dissatis- 
faction at  the  Ohio  Company's  unceremonious  settlement 
among  them  without  permission,  and  upon  lands  not  pur- 
chased. The  exclusive  right  also  which  the  company 
claimed  excited  the  jealousy  and  caused  the  opposition 
of  private  traders,  who  were  not  inactive  in  fanning  the 
flame  of  dissatisfaction  which  had  already  been  kindled 
among  the  Indian  tribes. 

An  impending  conflict  with  France,  a  threatened  rup- 
ture with  the  Twightwees,  the  claims  of  the  Ohio  Com- 
pany, and  the  rights  of  Indian  trade  were  subjects  which 
demanded  the  immediate  attention  of  the  Governor  of 
14 


210  WASHINGTON. 

Virginia,  whose  jurisdiction  then  extended  to  the  Ohio 
and  the  Twightwee  country. 

The  proceedings  of  the  French  in  dispossessing  Captain 
Trent  of  his  post  at  the  forks  of  the  Ohio,  and  themselves 
building  a  fort  there,  and  in  compelling  Colonel  Wash- 
ington to  surrender  Fort  Necessity,  greatly  added  to  the 
excitement  which  the  subject  created  in  the  mother 
country. 

[The  British  ambassador  at  Paris  was  instructed  to  com- 
plain of  the  proceedings  as  in  violation  of  the  peace,  and 
the  French  court  protested  that  no  violation  was  intended. 

"  Their  ambassador  at  the  court  of  St.  James,  gave  the 
same  assurances.  In  the  meantime  however  French  ships 
were  fitted  out,  and  troops  embarked,  to  carry  out  the 
schemes  of  the  government  in  America.  So  profound 
was  the  dissimulation  of  the  court  of  Versailles,  that  even 
their  own  ambassador  is  said  to  have  been  kept  in  ig- 
norance of  their  real  designs,  and  of  the  hostile  game  they 
w^re  playing,  while  he  was  exerting  himself  in  good  faith 
to  lull  the  suspicions  of  England,  and  maintain  inter- 
national peace.  When  his  eyes  however  were  opened,  he 
returned  indignantly  to  France,  and  upbraided  the  cabinet 
with  the  duplicity  of  which  he  had  been  made  the  uncon- 
scious instrument. 

"  The  British  Government  now  prepared  for  military 
operations  in  America ;  none  of  them  professedly  aggres- 
sive, but  rather  to  resist  and  counteract  aggressions.  A 
plan  of  campaign  was  devised  for  1755,  having  four  ob- 
jects. 

"  To  eject  the  French  from  lands  which  they  held  un- 
justly, in  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia. 

"To  dislodge  them  from  a  fortress  which  they  had 
erected  at  Crown  Point,  on  Lake  Champlain,  within  what 
was  claimed  as  British  territory. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  211 

"  To  dispossess  them  of  the  fort  which  they  had  con- 
structed at  Niagara,  between  Lake  Ontario  and  Lake  Erie. 

"  To  drive  them  from  the  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia,  and  recover  the  valley  of  the  Ohio."*] 

The  Government  voted  a  milHon  of  pounds  sterling  for 
the  defense  of  the  American  Colonies.  Admiral  Boscawen 
sailed  with  a  fleet  to  the  banks  of  Newfoundland.  Sir 
Edward  Hawke,  Admiral  Holborne,  and  Admiral  Byng 
also  took  the  sea  with  three  squadrons.  And  British 
cruisers  and  privateers  made  fearful  havoc  with  the  French 
West  India  trade.  During  the  year  (1755),  300  French 
merchant  ships  and  8,000  French  seamen  were  captured. 
On  the  American  lakes  also  and  on  the  frontiers  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Pennsylvania,  there  was  waged  a  desultory  but 
fearfully  afflictive  warfare,  accompanied  with  all  the 
atrocity  of  savage  massacres. 

The  arrangements  for  a  campaign  against  the  French 
in  America  were  committed  to  Prince  William  Augustus, 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  surviving  son  of  the  King,  and  at 
that  time  chief  manager  of  British  military  operations. 

Holding  a  commission  in  the  Guards,  and  being  well 
acquainted  with  their  thorough  discipline,  he  chose,  as 
the  major-general  for  the  proposed  expedition,  an  officer 
for  forty  years  connected  with  them  and  celebrated  as  a 
disciplinarian  and  tactician.  The  Duke,  stern,  harsh,  and 
tyrannous,  was  the  object  of  general  fear  and  hatred. 
But  discipline  was  his  boast  —  uncompromising  discipline. 

He  found  an  officer  after  his  own  heart  in  Major- 
General  Edward  Braddock,  who  had  served  under  him 
in  Scotland,  in  his  expedition  against  the  Pretender, 
Charles  Edward,  in  1746.  Braddock  was  accordingly  ap- 
pointed Commander-in-Chief  of  His  Majesty's  forces  in 

*  Irving,  vol.   I,  p.  189. 


212  WASHINGTON. 

America.  The  Duke  then  conveyed  to  him  a  set  of  in- 
structions on  the  conduct  of  his  expedition,  and  repeatedly 
cautioned  him,  orally  and  in  writing,  to  beware  of  an 
ambuscade. 

Flushed  with  the  hope  of  making  short  work  with  the 
French  and  their  savage  allies,  General  Braddock  sailed 
from  Cork,  in  Ireland,  on  the  14th  day  of  January  (1755), 
with  two  regiments  of  foot,  consisting  each  of  500  British 
regulars,  under  Colonel  Dunbar  and  Col.  Sir  Peter  Hal- 
kett,  officers  of  high  repute  for  ability  and  experience. 

[Previous  to  Braddock's  arrival,  Lieut.-Col.  Sir  John 
St.  Clair,  deputy  quartermaster-general,  had  come  from 
England,  and  made  a  tour  of  inspection  in  company  with 
Governor  Sharpe,  of  Maryland.  The  sight  of  the  moun- 
tain wilderness  where  Washington's  operations  had  been 
conducted  filled  him  with  dismay;  and  he  sent  word  to 
the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  from  Wills  Creek,  on  the 
border  beyond  which  began  the  pathless  forest,  that  there 
could  be  no  campaign  until  a  road  should  be  cut,  or  re- 
paired where  rudely  cut,  toward  the  destination  of  the 
expedition,  and  at  the  same  time  another  put  in  good  con- 
dition for  bringing  supplies  from  Philadelphia.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  Pennsylvania  could  command  no  money,  except 
with  the  good-will  of  an  Assembly  which  he  described  as 
''  a  set  of  men  quite  unacquainted  with  every  kind  of  mili- 
tary service,  and  exceedingly  unwilling  to  part  with  money 
upon  any  terms."  It  was  with  difficulty  that  he  secured 
the  appointment  of  commissioners  to  make  the  necessary 
exploration,  and  survey  and  lay  out  the  proper  roads.  Sir 
John  St.  Clair,  after  completing  his  tour  of  inspection, 
traveled  by  canoe  200  miles  down  Wills  Creek  and  the 
Potomac  to  Alexandria,  where  Braddock  made  his  head- 
quarters, where  the  troops  disembarked  and  encamped, 
and  where  colonial  levies  were  to  repair.     It  was  but  nine 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  213 

miles  from  Mount  Vernon.  The  levies  for  augmenting 
the  two  British  regiments  from  500  to  700  each  were 
selected  by  Sir  John  St.  Clair  from  Virginia  companies 
recently  raised,  and  after  being  supplied  with  their  uni- 
forms were  marched  to  Winchester  for  their  arms,  in 
charge  of  a  British  ensign  under  orders  from  Braddock 
"  to  make  them  as  Hke  soldiers  as  possible."] 

Before  the  end  of  February  Braddock  reached  Virginia 
(February  20,  1755) ;  and  soon  after  the  transports  which 
carried  the  troops  arrived  at  Alexandria;  the  squadron, 
under  Commodore  Keppel,  including  also  two  ships  of 
war. 

Never  before  had  such  an  army  been  seen  in  the  Col- 
onies. Their  appearance  and  movements  —  the  perfec- 
tion of  military  discipline  —  created  universal  admiration 
and  inspired  very  great  confidence  in  the  triumphant  issue 
of  the  expedition.  All  colonial  jealousies  and  sectional 
disagreements  were  merged  in  the  general  and  heart- 
cheering  sentiment  that  the  long-subsisting  and  vexatious 
altercations  with  the  French  and  their  savage  allies  were 
about  to  be  effectually  terminated,  to  the  future  peace 
and  comfort  of  His  Majesty's  loyal  subjects  in  America. 
So  great  was  the  confidence  reposed  in  the  skill  and  prow- 
ess of  British  regulars. 


CHAPTER  V. 

WASHINGTON  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  MONONQAHELA. 

1754,  1755- 

HAVING  resigned  his  commission,  Washington  was 
without  employment  as  a  military  man.  But 
there  was  slumbering  in  his  bosom  many  a  high 
resolve,  which  needed  only  a  suitable  occasion  for  its  in- 
dulgence. And  he  felt  instinctively  that  it  was  not  yet 
the  hour  for  his  repose  from  public  duty.  He  spoke  of 
his  "  reluctance  to  quit  the  service,"  and  said,  "  My  in- 
clinations are  strongly  bent  to  arms."*  Ill  at  ease  in  his 
retirement,  he  was  ready  therefore  to  meet  with  cheerful- 
ness the  summons  which  soon  called  him  once  more  to 
the  camp. 

Not  long  after  Braddock's  arrival  in  Virginia,  he  sought 
out  Washington,  well  known  to  him  by  fame ;  he  learned 
the  story  of  his  retirement  from  the  service;  he  heartily 
commended  his  spirited  conduct  on  the  occasion;  and 
he  invited  him  to  become  one  of  his  aids,  retaining  his 
rank  as  colonel,  and  acting  as  a  volunteer.  This  propo- 
sition fully  met  the  views  and  wishes  of  Washington. 
He  promptly  accepted  Braddock's  invitation,  and  he  be- 
came a  member  of  the  generaPs  military  family. 

Captain  Robert  Orme,  one  of  the  aids  of  Braddock, 
had  written  to  Washington  in  these  words: 

*  Letter  to  Colonel  Fitzhugh,  November  15,  1754. 
(214) 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  215 

Williamsburg,  March  2,  1755. 
Sir. —  The  general  having  been  informed  that  you  ex- 
pressed some  desire  to  make  the  campaign,  but  that  you 
decHned  it  upon  some  disagreeableness  which  you  thought 
might  arise  from  the  regulations  of  command,  has  ordered 
me  to  acquaint  you  that  he  will  be  very  glad  of  your  com- 
pany in  his  family,  by  which  all  inconveniences  of  that  kind 
will  be  obviated.  I  shall  think  myself  very  happy,  to  form 
an  acquaintance  with  a  person  so  universally  esteemed,  and 
shall  use  every  opportunity  of  assuring  you  how  much  I 
am,  sir, 

Your  most  obedient  servant, 

Robert  Orme, 

Aide-de-Camp. 

[In  reply  to  Braddock's  invitation,  Washington  wrote  to 
Orme  letters  of  March  15,  1755,  and  of  April  2,  in  which 
these  expressions  occur : 

"  I  wish  earnestly  to  attain  some  knowledge  in  the  mili- 
tary profession,  and,  believing  a  more  favorable  oppor- 
tunity cannot  offer  than  to  serve  under  a  gentleman  of 
General  Braddock's  abilities  and  experience,  it  does  not  a 
little  contribute  to  influence  my  choice.  The  only  bar 
which  can  check  me  in  the  pursuit  of  this  object  is  the 
inconveniences  that  must  necessarily  result  from  some  pro- 
ceedings which  happened  a  little  before  the  General's  ar- 
rival, and  which,  in  some  measure,  had  abated  the  ardor 
of  my  desires,  and  determined  me  to  lead  a  life  of  retire- 
ment, into  which  I  was  just  entering  at  no  small  expense 
when  your  favor  was  presented  to  me.  I  shall  do  myself 
the  honor  of  waiting  upon  his  Excellency  as  soon  as  I 
hear  of  his  arrival  at  Alexandria.  I  should  have  embraced 
this  opportunity  of  writing  to  him  had  I  not  recently  ad- 
dressed a  congratulatory  letter  to  him  on  his  safe  arrival 
in  this  country. 


216  WASHINGTON. 

"  You  do  me  a  singular  favor  in  proposing  an  acquaint- 
ance. It  cannot  but  be  attended  with  the  most  flattering 
prospects  of  intimacy  on  my  part,  as  you  may  already  per- 
ceive by  the  familiarity  and  freedom  with  which  I  now 
enter  upon  this  correspondence. 

"  I  find  myself  much  embarrassed  with  my  afifairs 
[April  2d],  having  no  person  in  whom  I  can  confide,  to 
entrust  the  management  of  them  with.  Notwithstanding, 
I  am  determined  to  do  myself  the  honor  of  accompanying 
you,  upon  this  proviso,  that  the  General  will  be  kind 
enough  to  permit  my  return  as  soon  as  the  active  part  of 
the  campaign  is  at  an  end,  if  it  is  desired  [i.  e.,  if  he  should 
desire  it]  ;  or,  if  there  should  be  a  space  of  inaction,  long 
enough  to  admit  a  visit  to  my  home,  that  I  may  be  in- 
dulged in  coming  to  it.  I  need  not  add  how  much  I 
should  be  obliged  by  joining  you  at  Wills  Creek,  instead 
of  doing  it  at  an  earlier  period  and  place.  These  things 
will  not,  I  hope,  be  thought  unreasonable,  when  it  is  con- 
sidered how  unprepared  I  am  at  present  to  quit  a  family 
and  an  estate  I  was  just  about  to  settle,  and  which  is  in 
the  utmost  confusion." 

To  John  Robinson,  at  that  time  and  for  many  years 
Speaker  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses  and  Colonial 
Treasurer,  Washington  wrote,  April  20,  1755 : 

"  The  sole  motive  which  invites  me  to  the  field  is  the 
laudable  desire  of  serving  my  country,  and  not  the  grati- 
fication of  any  ambitious  or  lucrative  plans.  *  *  *  j 
expect  to  be  a  considerable  loser  in  my  private  affairs  by 
going.  It  is  true  I  have  been  importuned  to  make  this 
campaign  by  General  Braddock,  conceiving,  I  suppose, 
that  the  small  knowledge  I  have  had  an  opportunity  of 
acquiring  of  the  country,  Indians,  etc.,  was  worthy  of  his 
notice,  and  might  be  useful  to  him  in  the  progress  of  his 
expedition." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  217 

The  matter  of  50  odd  pounds  which  he  had  made  good 
upon  a  loss  which  occurred,  Washington  touches  upon, 
in  view  of  a  proposal  by  the  chairman  of  the  military  com- 
mittee that  he  apply  to  be  reimbursed,  and  further  says : 

''  I  should  not  have  asked  this  had  it  not  proposed,  and 
had  I  not  been  so  considerable  a  loser  in  the  service,  in 
valuable  papers,  clothing,  horses  and  several  other  things, 
some  of  which,  and  of  no  inconsiderable  value,  I  carried 
out  entirely  for  the  public  use.  I  had  unfortunately  got 
my  baggage  from  Wills  Creek  but  a  few  days  before  the 
engagement,  in  which  I  also  had  a  valuable  servant 
wounded,  who  died  soon  after." 

To  William  Byrd  Washington  wrote,  also  on  the  20th 
of  April,  of  Braddock's  offer,  and  said  of  this,  '^  a  circum- 
stance which  will  ease  me  of  expenses  that  otherwise  must 
had  accrued  in  furnishing  stores,  camp  equipage,  etc, 
whereas  the  cost  will  now  be  easy  (comparatively),  as 
baggage,  horses,  tents,  and  some  other  necessaries,  will 
constitute  the  whole  of  the  charge.  Yet  to  have  a  family 
just  settling,  and  in  the  confusion  and  disorder  mine  is 
in  at  present,  is  not  a  pleasing  thing  and  may  be  hurtful. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  it  shall  be  no  hindrance  to  my  mak- 
ing this  campaign."] 

A  few  days  after  the  general  held  a  meeting  at  his  head- 
quarters in  Alexandria  with  six  of  the  colonial  Governors : 
Dinwiddle,  of  Virginia;  Delancey,  of  New  York;  Sharpe, 
of  Maryland;  Dobbs,  of  North  Carolina ;  Shirley,  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and  Morris,  of  Pennsylvania.  At  this  meeting  a 
plan  for  concert  in  action  was  devised.  Braddock  was  to 
proceed  against  Fort  Duquesne,  Shirley  against  Niagara, 
and  Sir  William  Johnson  against  Crown  Point.  The  sub- 
jects discussed  and  the  arrangements  made  by  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief and  the  council  of  Governors  possessed  a 
momentous  interest. 


218  WASHINGTON. 

At  this  meeting  Washington  was  by  invitation  present. 
He  was  introduced  to  the  Governors,  and  they  accorded  to 
him  marked  expressions  of  esteem.  Referring  to  the  oc- 
casion he  says : 

"  I  have  had  the  honor  to  be  introduced  to  several  Gov- 
ernors and  of  being  well  received  by  them,  especially  Mr. 
Shirley,  whose  character  and  appearance  have  perfectly 
charmed  me.  I  think  his  every  word  and  action  discover 
in  him  the  gentleman  and  politician.  I  heartily  wish  the 
same  unanimity  may  prevail  among  us  as  appeared  to  exist 
between  him  and  his  Assembly  when  they,  to  expedite  the 
business  and  to  forward  his  journey  hither,  sat  till  ii  and 
12  o'clock  every  night."* 

Braddock  proceeded  on  his  way  toward  Wills  Creek, 
where  the  several  divisions  of  his  troops  which  had  pur- 
sued different  routes,  afterward  united,  and,  including  the 
provincials,  formed  an  army  of  2,000  men. 

Washington,  detained  at  home  for  a  few  days  by  private 
duties  there,  overtook  the  general  at  Fredericktown,  Mary- 
land, and  was  now  with  him.  But  the  army,  to  the  annoy- 
ance and  vexation  of  Braddock,  was  at  a  stand.  Contracts 
for  provisions  and  for  horses  and  baggage-wagons  were  un- 
fulfilled, and  to  advance  without  these  was  deemed  utterly 
impracticable. 

Braddock  was  exasperated.  He  proposed  to  send  dn 
armed  force  into  the  counties  of  Lancaster,  York,  and 
Cumberland,  Pennsylvania,  ''  to  seize  as  many  of  the  best 
carriages  and  horses  as  should  be  wanted,  and  to  compel 
as  many  persons  into  the  service  as  would  be  necessary  to 
drive  and  take  care  of  them."  In  this  emergency  suitable 
measures  of  relief  were  devised  by  Franklin.  "  Our  As- 
sembly," says  he,  "  apprehending,  from  some  information, 

*  Letter  to  William  Fairfax,  April  23,  1755. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  319 

that  the  general  had  received  violent  prejudices  against 
them  as  averse  to  the  service,  wished  me  to  wait  upon  him, 
not  as  from  them,  but  as  Postmaster-General,  under  the 
guise  of  proposing  to  settle  with  him  the  mode  of  conduct- 
ing with  most  celerity  and  certainty  the  dispatches  between 
him  and  the  Governors  of  the  several  provinces,  with  whom 
he  must  necessarily  have  continual  correspondence,  and  of 
which  they  proposed  to  pay  the  expense.  My  son  accom- 
panied me  on  this  journey. 

'*  We  found  the  general  at  Fredericktown  waiting  im- 
patiently for  the  return  of  those  he  had  sent  through  the 
back  parts  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  to  collect  wagons.  I 
stayed  with  him  several  days,  dined  with  him  daily,  and  had 
full  opportunities  of  removing  his  prejudices  by  the  infor- 
mation of  what  the  Assembly  had  before  his  arrival  actually 
done  and  were  still  willing  to  do  to  facilitate  operations. 
When  I  was  about  to  depart  the  returns  of  the  wagons  to 
be  obtained  were  brought  in,  by  which  it  appeared  that 
they  amounted  only  to  twenty-five,  and  not  all  of  these  were 
in  serviceable  condition.  The  general  and  all  the  officers 
were  surprised;  declared  the  expedition  was  at  an  end, 
being  impossible ;  and  exclaimed  against  the  ministers  for 
ignorantly  sending  them  into  a  country  destitute  of  the 
means  of  conveying  their  stores  and  baggage,  not  less 
than  150  wagons  being  necessary. 

"  I  happened  to  say  I  thought  it  was  a  pity  they  had  not 
been  landed  in  Pennsylvania,  as  in  that  country  almost 
every  farmer  had  his  wagon.  The  general  eagerly  laid  hold 
of  my  words  and  said,  *  Then  you,  sir,  who  are  a  man  of 
interest  there,  can  probably  procure  them  for  us,  and  I 
beg  you  to  undertake  it.'  I  asked  what  terms  were  to  be 
offered  the  owners  of  the  wagons ;  and  I  was  desired  to  put 
on  paper  the  terms  that  appeared  to  me  necessary.    This 


320  WASHINGTON. 

I  did  and  they  were  agreed  to,  and  a  commission  and  in- 
structions were  prepared  immediately." 

The  energy  and  personal  influence  of  Franklin  soon  pro- 
duced the  most  cheering  results.  He  published  an  adver- 
tisement and  an  address  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  counties 
of  Lancaster,  York,  and  Cumberland,  appealing  to  their 
self-interest  and  to  their  loyalty.  "  I  received  from  the 
general,"  says  he,  "  about  iSoo  to  be  disbursed  in  advance 
money  to  the  wagon-owners,  but  that  sum  being  insuffi- 
cient I  advanced  upward  of  £200  more ;  and  in  two  weeks 
the  150  wagons,  with  259  carrying-horses  were  on  their 
way  to  the  camp."  "  The  owners  however,  alleging  they 
did  not  know  General  Braddock,  nor  what  dependence 
might  be  had  on  his  promise,  insisted  on  my  bond  for  the 
performance  which  I  accordingly  gave  them."* 

But  for  the  timely  services  thus  rendered  by  Franklin 
disastrous  consequences  must  inevitably  have  ensued  from 
t^e  general's  exasperation  and  rashness. 

He  was  not  devoid  of  noble  sentiments  and  generous  im- 
pulses, but  his  temper  and  conduct  afforded  ample  proof 
that  he  was  very  deficient  in  some  of  the  essential  qualities 
upon  which  depend  the  influence  and  success  of  a  military 
chief. 

Washington  saw  this  and  in  one  of  his  letters f  he  says: 
"  The  general,  from  frequent  breaches  of  contract,  has  lost 
all  patience;  and  for  want  of  that  temper  and  moderation 
which  should  be  used  by  a  man  of  sense  upon  these  occa- 
sions, will,  I  fear,  represent  us  in  a  light  we  little  deserve; 
for  instead  of  blaming  the  individuals,  as  he  ought,  he 
charges  all  his  disappointments  to  public  supineness  and 
looks  upon  the  country  I  believe  as  void    of    honor  and 

*  Franklin's  "  Autobiography  "  in  his  Works,  vol.  I,  ch.  x,  pp.  182, 
183,  187. 
t  Letter  to  William  Fairfax,  June  7,  i755- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  231 

honesty.  We  have  frequent  disputes  on  this  head  which 
are  maintained  with  warmth  on  both  sides,  especially  on 
his,  as  he  is  incapable  of  arguing  without  it,  or  giving  up 
any  point  he  asserts,  be  it  ever  so  incompatible  with  reason 
or  common  sense." 

William  Shirley,  son  of  the  Governor,  was  Braddock's 
secretary.  In  a  letter  to  Governor  Morris  he  says :  "  We 
have  a  general  most  judiciously  chosen  for  being  disquali- 
fied, for  the  service  he  is  employed  in  in  almost  every 
respect."* 

He  was  haughty,  self-conceited,  self-willed,  imperious, 
and  obstinate.  He  was  also  excessively  "severe.  And  he 
greatly  lacked  the  prudence  and  caution  which,  in  such 
a  warfare  as  he  was  about  to  wage,  were  absolutely  essential 
to  his  success.  In  the  temper  of  his  patron,  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  who  refused  to  accept  the  loyal  offers  of  the 
Scotch  lowland  lords  before  the  battle  of  CuUoden,  Brad- 
dock  now  spurned  the  thought  of  employing  Indian  allies ; 
and  regardless  of  the  dangers  against  which  he  had  been 
cautioned  he  trusted  implicitly  to  the  prowess  of  his  brave 
troops. 

"  He  was,  I  think,  a  brave  man,"  says  Franklin,  "  and 
might  probably  have  made  a  figure  as  a  good  officer  in 
some  European  war.  But  he  had  too  much  self-confidence, 
too  high  an  opinion  of  the  validity  of  regular  troops,  and 
too  mean  a  one  of  both  Americans  and  Indians.  George 
Croghan,  our  Indian  interpreter,  joined  him  on  his  march 
with  loo  of  those  people,  who  might  have  been  of  great 
use  to  his  army  as  guides  and  scouts  if  he  had  treated  them 
kindly,  but  he  slighted  and  neglected  them  and  they 
gradually  left  him. 

"  In  conversation  with  him  one  day  he  was  giving  me 

*  Colonial  Records,  vol.  VI,  p.  405. 


232  WASHINGTON. 

some  account  of  his  intended  progress.  '  After  taking  Fort 
Duquesne,'  said  he,  'I  am  to  proceed  to  Niagara;  and  hav- 
ing  taken  that  to  Frontenac,  if  the  season  will  allow  time, 
and  I  suppose  it  will,  for  Duquesne  can  hardly  detain  me 
above  three  or  four  days,  and  then  I  see  nothing  that  can 
obstruct  my  march  to  Niagara.'  Having  before  revolved 
in  my  mind  the  long  line  his  army  must  make  in  their 
march  by  a  very  narrow  road  to  be  cut  for  them  through 
the  woods  and  bushes,  and  also  what  I  had  read  of  a  former 
defeat  of  1,500  French  who  invaded  the  IlHnois  country,  I 
had  conceived  some  doubts  and  some  fears  for  the  event 
of  the  campaign.  But  I  ventured  only  to  say :  '  To  be  sure, 
sir,  if  you  arrive  well  before  Duquesne  with  these  fine 
troops, so  well  provided  with  artillery, the  fort,  though  com- 
pletely fortified  and  assisted  with  a  strong  garrison,  can 
probably  make  but  a  short  resistance.  The  only  danger  I 
apprehend  of  obstruction  to  your  march  is  from  the  am- 
buscades of  the  Indians  who,  by  constant  practice,  are 
dexterous  in  laying  and  executing  them ;  and  the  slender 
line,  near  four  miles  long,  which  your  army  must  make, 
may  expose  it  to  be  attacked  by  surprise  in  its  flanks,  and 
to  be  cut  like  a  thread  into  several  pieces  which,  from  their 
distance,  cannot  come  up  in  time  to  support  each  other.' 

"  He  smiled  at  my  ignorance  and  replied :  '  These 
savages  may  indeed  be  a  formidable  enemy  to  your  raw 
American  militia,  but  upon  the  King's  regular  and  dis- 
ciplined troops,  sir,  it  is  impossible  they  should  make  any 
impression.'  "* 

[May  6th  Washington  wrote  to  his  younger  brother, 
John  A.  Washington: 

"  I  hope  you  will  have  frequent  opportunities  to  par- 
ticularize the  state  of  my  affairs,  which  will  administer 
much  satisfaction  to  a  person  in  my  situation." 

*  Franklin's  "  Autobiography  "  in  his  Works,  vol.  I,  ch.  x,  pp.  189, 
190. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  223 

The  younger  brother  evidently  was  left  in  charge  at 
Mt.  Vernon.     May  25th  Washington  wrote  again : 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  that  you  live  in  perfect  har- 
mony and  good  fellowship  with  the  family  at  Belvoir, 
as  it  is  in  their  power  to  be  very  serviceable  to  us,  as 
young  beginners.  I  would  advise  your  visiting  there  of- 
ten, as  one  step  towards  it ;  the  rest,  if  any  more  is  neces- 
sary, your  own  good  sense  will  sufficiently  dictate, —  for 
to  that  family  I  am  under  many  obligations,  particularly 
to  the  old  gentleman." 

The  "  young  beginners  "  reference  is  to  the  getting  un- 
der way  with  the  care  of  the  Mt.  Vernon  estate. 

In  a  postscript  to  the  same  letter  Washington  appears 
cherishing  political  ambition,  to  the  extent  of  wishing  to 
be  elected  to  the  House  of  Burgesses.  Thus  he  writes 
to  his  brother  John: 

"As  I  understand  the  county  of  Fairfax  is  to  be  divided, 
and  that  Mr.  Alexander  intends  to  decline  serving  in  it, 
I  should  be  glad  if  you  could  come  at  Colonel  Fairfax's 
intentions,  and  let  me  know  whether  he  purposes  to  offer 
himself  as  a  candidate.  If  he  does  not,  I  should  be  glad 
to  take  a  poll,  if  I  thought  my  chance  tolerably  good. 
Major  Carlyle  mentioned  it  to  me  in  Williamsburgh  in  a 
bantering  way,  and  asked  how  I  would  like  it,  saying,  at 
th^e  same  time,  he  did  not  know  but  they  might  send  me, 
for  one  or  t'other  of  the  counties,  when  I  might  know 
nothing  of  the  matter.  I  must  confess  I  should  like  to 
go  for  either  in  that  manner,  but  more  particularly  for 
Fairfax,  as  I  am  a  resident  there.  I  should  be  glad  if 
you  could  discover  Major  Carlyle's  real  sentiments  on 
this  head;  also  those  of  Mr.  Dalton,  Ramsay,  Mason,  etc., 
which  I  hope  and  think  you  may  do  without  disclosing 
much  of  mhte,  as  I  know  your  own  good  sense  can  fur- 
nish you  with  contrivances.     If  you  should  attempt  any- 


224:  WASHINGTON. 

thing  in  this  matter,  pray  let  me  know  by  the  first  op- 
portunity how  you  have  succeeded  in  it,  and  how  those 
gentlemen  stand  affected.  If  they  seem  inclinable  to  pro- 
mote my  interest,  and  things  should  be  drawing  to  a 
crisis,  you  then  may  declare  my  intentions,  and  beg  their 
assistance.  If,  on  the  contrary,  you  find  them  more  in- 
clined to  favor  some  other,  I  would  have  the  affair  en- 
tirely dropped.  The  Revd.  Mr.  Green's  and  Capt.  Mc- 
Carty's  interests  in  this  matter  would  be  of  consequence, 
and  I  should  be  glad  if  you  could  sound  their  pulse  upon 
that  occasion.  Conduct  the  whole,  'till  you  are  satisfied 
of  the  sentiments  of  those  I  have  mentioned,  with  an  air 
of  unconcern;  after  that  you  may  regulate  your  conduct 
according  to  circumstances.  Capt.  West,  the  present  Bur- 
gess, and  our  friend  Jack  West,  could  also  be  serviceable, 
if  they  had  a  mind  to  assist  the  interest  of,  Dear  Jack, 
Your  loving  brother,"] 

The  army  provided  with  wagons,  horses,  and  every  nec- 
essary supply  now  moved  on.  But  the  month  of  June 
(1755)  had  already  arrived.  And  so  many  and  great  de- 
lays occurred,  chiefly  from  rough  roads,  that  the  general 
indulged  serious  doubts  of  the  feasibility  of  reaching  the 
French  fort  before  the  close  of  the  season.  He  consulted 
privately  with  Washington,  who  advised  him  to  proceed. 
"  I  urged  him  in  the  warmest  terms  I  was  able,"  says  Wash- 
ington, "  to  push  forward,  if  he  even  did  it  with  a  small  but 
chosen  band,  with  such  artillery  and  light  stores  as  were 
necessary;  leaving  the  heavy  artillery,  baggage,  and  the 
like  with  the  rear  division  of  the  army,  to  follow  by  slow 
and  easy  marches,  which  they  might  do  safely  while  we 
were  advanced  in  front.  As  one  reason  to  support  this 
opinion,  I  urged,  that  if  we  could  credit  our  intelligence,  the 
French  were  weak  at  the  Fork  at  present,  but  hourly  ex- 
pected   reinforcements  which,  to    my  certain    knowledge, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  225 

could  not  arrive  with  provisions  or  any  supplies  during  the 
continuance  of  the  drought,  as  the  Buffalo  river,  down 
which  was  their  only  communication  to  Venango,  must  be 
as  dry  as  we  now  found  the  great  crossing  of  the  Youg- 
hiogheny,  which  may  be  passed  dryshod."* 

In  a  council  of  war,  held  on  the  occasion,  the  advice  of 
Washington  prevailed.  The  general  with  1,200  men,  carry- 
ing a  small  supply  of  necessary  stores  and  a  few  pieces  of 
light  artillery,  moved  forward,  and  Colonel  Dunbar  with 
600  men  and  the  heavy  baggage  followed  by  slow  marches. 

Washington  accompanied  the  general  in  the  advanced 
corps.  But  when  four  days  had  passed  and  the  general 
with  his  corps  had  reached  a  spot  but  nineteen  miles  from 
the  Little  Meadows  a  painful  incident  occurred  (June  14, 
1755)  which  greatly  distressed  the  mind  of  Washington, 
yet  served  to  exhibit  in  a  strong  light  his  energy  and  de- 
termination 

When  the  army  had  advanced  about  ten  miles  from  Wills 
Creek  he  was  seized  with  a  violent  fever  by  which  he  was 
prostrated.  Yet  he  continued  with  the  army.  Too  feeble 
to  ride  on  horseback  he  was  carried  in  a  covered  wagon 
until  his  physician  advised,  and  the  general  required,  that 
he  should  not  continue  with  the  advanced  division.  To 
this  he  yielded  his  reluctant  consent  on  the  absolute  con- 
dition that  before  the  army's  reaching  the  French  fort  ar- 
rangements should  be  made  for  his  rejoining  it.  "  I  had," 
says  he,  "  the  general's  word  of  honor,  pledged  in  the  most 
solemn  manner,  that  I  should  be  brought  up  before  he  ar- 
rived at  Fort  Duquesne."* 

Attended  by  a  small  guard  and  awaiting  the  arrival  of 
Colonel  Dunbar  with  the  rear  army,  he  continued  for  some 
days  in  a  state  of  extreme    debility.      Colonel    Dunbar's 

*  Letter  to  John  A.  Washington,  June  28,  1755. 
15 


226  WASHINGTON. 

division  did  not  reach  him  for  eight  days.  His  fever 
moderated  at  this  time,  but  his  weakness,  as  he  himself  ad- 
mitted, was  excessive. 

[Of  this  Washington  said  in  a  letter  of  June  28,  1755 : 
"  On  the  14th  instant  I  was  seized  with  violent  fevers  and 
pains  in  my  head,  which  continued  without  intermission 
'till  the  23d  following,  when  I  was  relieved,  by  the  Gen- 
eral's absolutely  ordering  the  physicians  to  give  me 
Dr.  James's  powders  (one  of  the  most  excellent  medicines 
in  the  world),  for  it  gave  me  immediate  ease,  and  removed 
my  fevers  and  other  complaints  in  four  days  time.  My 
illness  was  too  violent  to  suffer  me  to  ride;  therefore  I 
was  indebted  to  a  covered  wagon  for  some  part  of  my 
transportation;  but  even  in  this  I  could  not  continue  far, 
for  the  jolting  was  so  great.  I  was  left  upon  the  road, 
.with  a  guard  and  necessaries,  to  wait  the  arrival  of  Col- 
onel Dunbar's  detachment,  which  was  two  days'  march 
behind  us,  the  General  giving  me  his  word  of  honor,  that 
I  should  be  brought  up  before  he  reached  the  French 
fort.  This  promise,  and  the  doctor's  threats  that,  if  I  per- 
severed in  my  attempts  to  get  on,  in  the  condition  I  was, 
my  life  would  be  endangered,  determined  me  to  halt  for 
the  above  detachment." 

It  was  on  the  19th  (June),  when  he  had  been  ill  five 
days,  that  the  advance  of  Braddock  with  part  of  the  army 
began,  while  Dunbar  "  with  the  residue  of  the  two  regi- 
ments, some  independent  companies  (of  colonial  troops), 
most  of  the  women,  and  in  short  everything  not  abso- 
lutely necessary,"  remained  behind.  Washington  says  of 
the  advance :  "  We  set  out  With  less  than  30  carriages 
(including  those  that  transported  the  ammunition  for  the 
howitzers,  twelve-pounders,  and  six-pounders,  etc.),  and 
all  of  them  strongly  horsed;  which  was  a  prospect  that 
conveyed  infinite  delight  to  my  mind,  though  I  was  ex- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  227 

cessively  ill  at  the  time.  But  this  prospect  was  soon 
clouded,  and  my  hopes  brought  very  low  indeed,  when  I 
found  that  instead  of  pushing  on  with  vigor,  without  re- 
garding a  little  rough  road,  they  were  halting  to  level 
every  molehill,  and  to  erect  bridges  over  every  brook,  by 
which  means  we  were  four  days  getting  twelve  miles. 

"  At  this  camp  I  was  left  by  the  doctor's  advice,  and  the 
General's  absolute  orders,  without  which  I  should  not  have 
been  prevailed  upon  to  remain  behind ;  as  I  then  imagined, 
and  now  believe,  I  shall  find  it  no  easy  matter  to  join  my 
own  corps  again,  which  is  25  miles  advanced  before  us. 

"  I  have  been  now  six  days  with  Colonel  Dunbar's 
corps,  who  are  in  a  miserable  condition  for  want  of  horses, 
not  having  enough  for  their  wagons;  so  that  the  only 
method  he  has  of  proceeding,  is  to  march  with  as  many 
wagons  as  those  will  draw,  and  then  halt  till  the  remain- 
der are  brought  up  with  the  same  horses,  which  requires 
two  days  more ;  and  shortly,  I  believe,  he  will  not  be  able 
to  stir  at  all. 

**  My  strength  will  not  admit  me  to  say  more,  though 
I  have  not  said  half  what  I  intended  concerning  our  affairs 
here.  Business  I  shall  not  think  of,  but  depend  solely 
upon  your  management  of  all  my  affairs,  not  doubting  but 
that  they  will  be  well  conducted." 

The  next  paragraph  is  an  interesting  indulgence  in  genial 
sarcasm : 

"  You  may  thank  my  friends  for  the  letters  I  have  re- 
ceived from  them,  which,  tell  them  has  not  been  one  from 
any  mortal  since  I  left  Fairfax,  except  yourself  and  Mr.  Dal- 
ton.  It  is  a  specimen  of  their  regard  and  kindness  which 
I  should  endeavor  to  acknowledge  and  thank  them  for, 
was  I  able  and  suffered  to  write.'* 

"  July  2nd. —  We  are  advanced  almost  as  far  as  the 
Great  Meadows,  and  I  shall  set  out  tomorrow  morning 


228  WASHINGTON. 

for  my  own  corps,  witn  an  escort  of  lOO  men,  which  is 
to  guard  some  provisions  up,  so  that  my  fears  and  doubts 
on  that  head  are  now  removed." 

June  30,  Washington  had  written  to  Robert  Orme,  one 
of  Braddock's  aides :  "  I  came  to  this  camp  on  Thurs- 
day last,  with  the  rear  of  Colonel  Dunbar's  detachment, 
and  should  have  continued  on  with  his  front  today,  but 
was  prevented  by  rain.  My  fevers  are  very  moderate,  and, 
I  hope,  near  terminating;  when  I  shall  have  nothing  to 
encounter  but  weakness  which  is  excessive,  and  the  diffi- 
culty  of  getting  to  you,  arising  therefrom;  but  this  I 
would  not  miss  doing,  before  you  reach  Duquesne,  for  five 
hundred  pounds.  However,  I  have  no  doubt  now  of  doing 
this,  as  I  am  moving  on  slowly,  and  the  General  has  given 
me  his  word  of  honor,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that 
It  shall  be  effected.  The  doctor  thinks  it  imprudent  for 
me  to  use  much  exercise  for  two  or  three  days.''] 

One  of  the  general's  aides-de-camp,  Capt.  Roger  Morris, 
had  written  to  him  from  the  great  crossing  of  the  Youg- 
hiogheny,  "  I  am  desired  by  the  general  to  let  you  know 
that  he  marches  to-morrow  and  next  day,  but  that  he 
shall  halt  at  the  Meadows  two  or  three  days.  It  is  the  de- 
sire of  every  individual  in  the  family,  and  the  general's 
positive  commands  to  you,  not  to  stir  but  by  the  advice  of 
the  person  under  whose  care  you  are  till  you  are  better, 
which  we  all  hope  will  be  very  soon."  On  the  30th  day  of 
June  he  said,  in  a  letter  to  Captain  Orme,  one  of  the  gen- 
eral's aides :  "  As  the  doctor  thinks  it  imprudent  for  me 
to  use  much  exercise  for  two  or  three  days  my  movements 
will  be  retarded."*  But  he  husbanded  his  strength;  he 
took  advantage  of  every  moment  possible  for  him  to  pro- 
ceed; when  prevented  by  rain  from  continuing  with  the 

♦  Letter  to  John  A.  Washington,  June  28,  1755- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  229 

front  of  Colonel  Dunbar's  detachment  he  joined  the  rear, 
yet  he  moved  onward. 

It  was  with  great  effort  and  with  pain  that  he  persevered 
in  his  purpose;  but  he  at  length  succeeded,  to  his  own 
great  satisfaction  and  to  the  surprise  of  the  general,  in 
reaching  the  advanced  detachment  (July  8,  1755)  near  the 
junction  of  the  Youghiogheny  and  Monongahela  rivers, 
within  fifteen  miles  of  the  French  fort.  "  On  the  8th  day 
of  July,"  says  he,  in  a  memorandum,  "  I  rejoined  in  a  cov- 
ered wagon  the  advanced  division  of  the  army  under  the 
immediate  command  of  the  general.  On  the  9th  I  attended 
him  on  horseback,  though  very  low  and  weak." 

This  however  was  an  eventful  day  long  to  be  remem- 
bered, which,  while  it  veiled  others  with  the  gloom  of  mis- 
fortune and  calamity,  shed  around  him  and  his  exploits  the 
brightness  of  a  glorious  halo. 

[In  the  memorandum  just  quoted  Washington  added  to 
the  above :  "  On  this  day  he  was  attacked,  and  defeated, 
by  a  party  of  French  and  Indians,  adjudged  not  to  exceed 
300.  When  all  hope  of  rallying  the  dismayed  troops,  and 
recovering  the  ground,  was  expired  (our  provisions  and 
stores  being  given  up)  I  was  ordered  to  Dunbar's  camp."] 

Early  in  the  morning  the  army  advanced  in  good  health 
and  high  spirits,  and  in  perfect  military  order,  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  majestic  Monongahela.  To  reach  the  French 
fort  it  was  necessary  first  to  ford  the  river  and  march  for 
some  distance  on  its  south  bank;  then  to  return  to  the 
north  bank  by  fording  the  stream  again.  This  the  well-dis- 
ciplined troops  successfully  accomplished.  And  the  man- 
ner of  their  doing  it  was  so  truly  admirable  that  Washing- 
ton, who  beheld  the  scene  with  intense  interest,  often  re- 
curred to  it  with  the  deepest  emotion. 

After  crossing  to  the  northern  margin  of  the  river,  ten 
miles  from  the  fort,  an  advanced    column  of    the  troops 


230  WASHINGTON. 

marched  over  a  plain  and  up  an  ascent  between  two  ravines. 
But  the  remaining  columns  had  scarcely  forded  the 
stream  when  on  a  sudden  heavy  discharges  of  musketry 
were  heard  on  the  front  and  on  the  right  flank  of  the  ad- 
vanced party.  The  hostile  forces,  consisting  of  French 
troops  and  of  Indians,  concealed  in  the  ravines  and  behind 
trees,  kept  up  a  destructive  fire,  deliberately  singling  out 
their  victims,  and  prostrating  on  the  field,  among  the  killed 
and  wounded,  more  than  half  of  the  whole  army  which  so 
lately  presented  a  model  of  military  order,  discipline,  and 
prowess. 

The  advanced  column,  panic-struck,  had  retreated  in  dis- 
may, falling  back  upon  the  detachment  which  next  followed. 
The  contagion  of  alarm  here  seized  the  regular  troops  who, 
for  the  first  time,  heard  the  Indian  yell  and  war-whoop, 
and  were  standing  in  platoons  and  receiving  the  deadly  fire 
of  foes  who  were  invisible. 

Of  the  whole  army  no  part,  excepting  only  the  Virginia 
troops,  manifested  the  presence  of  mind  called  for  by  the 
emergency.  They  scattered  and  betook  themselves  to  trees 
from  behind  which  they  assailed  the  enemy  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  Indian  warfare. 

In  an  account  of  the  battle  given  by  Captain  Orme  he 
says :  "  The  men  were  so  extremely  deaf  to  the  exhorta- 
tion of  the  general  and  the  officers  that  they  fired  away 
in  the  most  irregular  manner  all  their  ammunition,  and 
then  ran  ofif,  leaving  to  the  enemy  the  artillery,  ammuni- 
tion, provision,  and  baggage ;  nor  could  they  be  persuaded 
to  stop  till  they  got  as  far  as  Gist's  plantation;  nOr  there 
only  in  part,  many  of  them  proceeding  as  far  as  Colonel 
Dunbar's  party,  who  lay  six  miles  on  this  side.  The  offi- 
cers were  absolutely  sacrificed  by  their  good  behavior, 
advancing   sometimes  in   bodies,    sometimes    separately. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  231 

hoping  by  such  example  to  engage  the  soldiers  to  follow 
them,  but  to  no  purpose.  The  general  had  five  horses 
shot  under  him,  and  at  last  received  a  wound  through  the 
right  arm  into  his  lungs  of  which  he  died  on  the  13th 
instant.  Secretary  Shirley  was  shot  through  the  head; 
Captain  Morris  wounded.  Colonel  Washington  had  two 
horses  shot  under  him  and  his  clothes  shot  through  in 
several  places,  behaving  the  whole  time  with  the  greatest 
courage  and  resolution.  Sir  Peter  Halket  was  killed 
upon  the  spot.  Colonel  Burton  and  Sir  John  St.  Clair 
were  wounded."* 

Our  "  well-armed  troops,  chiefly  regulars,  were  struck 
with  such  a  panic,"  says  Washington,  "  that  they  behaved 
with  more  cowardice  than  it  is  possible  to  conceive.  The 
officers  behaved  gallantly  in  order  to  encourage  their  men, 
for  which  they  suffered  greatly,  there  being  nearly  sixty 
killed  and  wounded ;  a  large  proportion  of  the  number  we 
had."  "  In  despite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  officers  to  the 
contrary  they  ran  as  sheep  pursued  by  dogs,  and  it  was  im- 
possible to  rally  them."  "  The  general  was  wounded,  of 
which  he  died  three  days  after.  Sir  Peter  Halket  was  killed 
in  the  field,  where  died  many  other  brave  officers.  I 
luckily  escaped  without  a  wound,  though  I  had  four  bul- 
lets through  my  coat  and  two  horses  shot  under  me. 
Captains  Orme  and  Morris,  two  of  the  aides-de-camp, 
were  wounded  early  in  the  engagement,  which  rendered 
the  duty  harder  upon  me,  as  I  was  the  only  person  then 
left  to  distribute  the  general's  orders,  which  I  was  scarcely 
able  to  do,  as  I  was  not  half  recovered  from  a  violent  ill- 
ness that  had  confined  me  to  my  bed  and  a  wagon  for 
above  ten  days.  I  am  still  in  a  weak  and  feeble  condition 
which  induces  me  to  halt  here  two  or  three  days  in  the 

*  Letter  to  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  July,  .1755. 


232  WASHINGTON. 

hope  of  recovering  a  little  strength  to  enable  me  to  pro- 
ceed homeward."* 

The  whole  number  of  British  officers  was  eighty-six, 
twenty-six  of  whom  were  killed  and  thirty-seven  wounded. 
The  killed  and  wounded  of  the  British  army  was  714.  The 
French  had  but  three  officers  killed  and  four  wounded,  and 
about  sixty  soldiers  and  Indians  killed  and  wounded. 
Braddock's  official  papers  were  taken  by  the  enemy  and 
also  Washington's  private  journal,  and  his  official  corre- 
spondence during  the  preceding  year's  campaign. 

[To  Governor  Dinwiddle  Washington  wrote  July  i8th, 
from  Fort  Cumberland: 

"  When  we  came  to  within  7  miles  of  Duquesne,  we 
were  attacked  (very  unexpectedly)  by  about  300  French 
and  Indians.  Our  numbers  consisted  of  about  1,300  well- 
armed  men,  chiefly  Regulars,  who  were  immediately  struck 
with  such  an  inconceivable  panic,  that  nothing  but  con- 
fusion and  disobedience  of  orders  prevailed  among  them. 
•The  officers,  in  general,  behaved  with  incomparable  brav- 
ery, for  which  they  greatly  suffered,  there  being  near  60 
killed  and  wounded, —  a  large  proportion  out  of  the  num- 
ber we  had. 

"  The  Virginia  companies  behaved  like  men  and  died  like 
soldiers;  for  I  believe  out  of  three  companies  that  were 
on  the  ground  that  day  scarce  30  men  were  left  alive. 
Capt.  Peyroney  and  all  his  officers,  down  to  a  corporal, 
were  killed;  Capt.  Poison  had  almost  as  hard  a  fate,  for 
only  one  of  his  escaped.  In  short,  the  dastardly  behavior 
of  the  Regular  troops  (so-called)  exposed  those  who  were 
inclined  to  do  their  duty  to  almost  certain  death ;  and,  at 
length,  in  despite  of  every  effort  to  the  contrary,  broke 
and  ran  as  sheep  before  hounds,  leaving  the  artillery,  am- 
*  Letter  to  Mrs.  Mary  Washington,  July  16,  1755. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  233 

munition,  provisions,  baggage,  and,  in  short,  everything, 
a  prey  to  the  enemy.  And  when  we  endeavored  to  rally 
them,  in  hopes  of  regaining  the  ground  and  what  we  had 
left  upon  it,  it  was  with  as  little  success  as  if  we  had  at- 
tempted to  have  stopped  the  wild  bears  of  the  mountains, 
or  rivulets  with  our  feet;  for  they  would  break  by,  in  de- 
spite of  every  effort  that  could  be  made  to  prevent  it. 

"  The  General  was  wounded  in  the  shoulder  and  breast, 
of  which  he  died  three  days  after ;  his  two  aides  were  both 
wounded  [Captains  Orme  and  Morris],  but  are  in  a  fair 
way  of  recovery;  Colonel  Burton  and  Sir  John  St.  Clair 
are  also  wounded,  and  I  hope  will  get  over  it ;  Sir  Peter 
Halket,  with  many  other  brave  officers,  were  killed  in  the 
field.  It  is  supposed  that  we  had  300  or  more  killed; 
about  that  number  we  brought  ofif  wounded,  and  it  is  con- 
jectured (I  believe,  with  much  truth)  that  two-thirds  of 
both  received  their  shot  from  our  own  cowardly  Regulars, 
who  gathered  themselves  into  a  body,  contrary  to  orders, 
ten  or  twelve  deep ;  would  then  level,  fire,  and  shoot  down 
the  men  before  them. 

"  I  tremble  at  the  consequences  that  this  defeat  may 
have  upon  our  back  settlers,  who,  I  suppose,  will  leave 
their  habitations  unless  there  are  proper  measures  taken 
for  their  security.  Colonel  Dunbar,  who  commands  at 
present,  intends,  as  soon  as  his  men  are  recruited,  to  con- 
tinue his  march  to  Philadelphia  for  winter  quarters ;  con- 
sequently there  will  be  no  men  left  here,  unless  it  is  the 
shattered  remains  of  the  Virginia  troops,  who  are  totally 
inadequate  to  the  protection  of  the  frontiers." 

To  his  brother  John,  Washington  wrote  on  the  same 
day: 

"  As  I  have  heard,  since  my  arrival  at  this  place,  a  cir- 
cumstantial account  of  my  death  and  dying  speech,  I  take 
this  early  opportunity  of  contradicting  the  first,  and  of 


234  WASHINGTON, 

assuring  you  that  I  have  not  composed  the  latter.  But, 
by  the  all-powerful  dispensations  of  Providence,  I  have 
been  protected  beyond  all  human  probability,  or  expec- 
tation; for  I  had  four  bullets  through  my  coat,  and  two 
horses  shot  under  me,  yet  escaped  unhurt,  though  death 
was  leveling  my  companions  on  every  side  of  me! 

**  We  have  been  most  scandalously  beaten  by  a  trifling  body 
of  men;  but  fatigue  and  want  of  time  prevent  me  from 
giving  you  any  of  the  details,  until  I  have  the  happiness 
of  seeing  you  at  Mount  Vernon,  which  I  now  most  ear- 
nestly wish  for,  since  we  are  driven  in  thus  far.  A  feeble 
state  of  health  obliges  me  to  halt  here  for  two  or  three 
days  to  recover  a  little  strength,  that  I  may  thereby  be 
enabled  to  proceed  homeward  with  more  ease."] 

The  story  of  Braddock's  ill-fated  expedition  was  at  first 
scarcely  credited.  The  thought  of  a  possibility  of  his  de- 
feat had  not  been  harbored.  Arrangements  had  actually 
been  made  in  Philadelphia  for  the  celebration  of  his  antici- 
pated valiant  achievement,  and  money  had  been  raised 
there  by  subscription  for  bonfires  and  illuminations. 

Washington  arrived  home  July  26th,  and  August  2d 
wrote  from  Mt.  Vernon  to  Robert  Jackson: 

"  It  is  true  we  have  been  beaten — shamefully  beaten  by  a 
handful  of  men  who  only  intended  to  molest  and  disturb  our 
march.  Victory  was  their  smallest  expectation.  But  see 
the  wondrous  works  of  Providence  and  the  uncertainty  of 
human  things  !  We  but  a  few  moments  before  believed  our 
numbers  almost  equal  to  the  Canadian  force ;  they  only  ex- 
pected to  annoy  us.  Yet  contrary  to  all  expectation  and 
human  probability,  and  even  to  the  common  course  of 
things,  we  were  totally  defeated  and  sustained  the  loss  of 
every  thing.  This,  as  you  observe,  must  be  an  affecting 
story  to  the  colony,  and  will,  no  doubt,  license  the  tongues 
of  people  to  censure  those  whom  they  think  most  blamable ; 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  235 

which,  by  the  by,  often  falls  very  wrongfully.  I  join  very 
heartily  with  you  in  believing,  that  when  this  story  comes 
to  be  related  in  future  annals,  it  will  meet  with  unbelief  and 
indignation,  for  had  I  not  been  witness  to  the  fact  on  that 
fatal  day,  I  should  scarce  have  given  credit  to  it  even  now." 

Washington's  wonderful  preservation  and  escape  with- 
out a  wound,  amid  so  many  and  great  dangers,  became 
very  naturally  a  general  topic  of  conversation  throughout 
the  Colonies. 

The  divine  purpose  in  the  preservation  of  his  life  was 
also  recognized  by  an  Indian  chief  and  his  warriors  who 
were  present  at  Monongahela  and  in  the  battle.  Washing- 
ton having  occasion  to  explore  some  western  wild  lands 
about  fifteen  years  after  the  time  of  the  battle  went  in  com- 
pany with  his  friend.  Dr.  Craik,  to  a  spot  near  the  junction 
of  the  Great  Kenhawa  and  Ohio  rivers.  While  there  he 
was  visited  by  a  sachem  and  his  party,  who  had  heard  of 
his  arrival  in  the  forest,  and  who  came  to  him  with  a  tribute 
of  their  homage. 

The  old  chief  said  that  he  was  present  at  the  battle  and 
among  the  Indian  allies  of  the  French;  that  he  singled  him 
out  and  repeatedly  fired  his  rifle  at  him ;  that  he  ordered  his 
young  warriors  also  to  make  him  their  only  mark ;  but  that 
on  finding  all  their  bullets  turned  aside  by  some  invisible 
and  inscrutable  interposition  he  was  convinced  that  the  hero 
at  whom  he  had  so  often  and  so  truly  aimed  must  be,  for 
some  wise  purpose,  specially  protected  by  the  Great  Spirit. 
He  now  came  therefore  to  testify  his  veneration. 

When  Braddock's  troops,  retreating  from  the  scene  of 
action,  recrossed  the  Monongahela,  Washington  has- 
tened to  the  rear  detachment  under  Dunbar  and  ordered 
vehicles  for  carrying  the  wounded  from  the  field. 

The  general  had  already  been  removed  in  a  wagon 
and  then  put  on  horseback;  but  it  was  soon  discovered 


236  WASHINGTON. 

that  he  could  not  ride,  and  he  was  borne  upon  a  htter, 
first  to  the  rear  detachment  and  then  toward  the  Great 
Meadows. 

On  the  fourth  day  he  died;  and,  to  conceal  his  body 
from  hostile  savages,  it  was  wrapped  in  his  cloak  and 
interred  at  night  at  a  spot  about  a  mile  west  of  Fort 
Necessity.  But  it  was  not  committed  to  the  earth  with- 
out the  rite  of  sepulture.  There  was,  it  is  true,  no  min- 
ister of  the  Gospel  in  attendance.  It  was  customary  how- 
ever, in  the  absence  of  a  clergyman,  for  the  laity  in  such 
emergencies  to  read  the  Church  of  England's  office  for 
the  burial  of  the  dead.  And  now  Washington,  standing 
near  the  lifeless  body  about  to  be  consigned  *'  dust  to 
dust,"  read  by  the  light  of  a  torch  the  words  of  the  solemn 
burial  service. 

[Irving's  narrative  of  the  return  of  Washington  to>  duty 
with  Braddock,  and  of  the  terrible  disaster  of  July  9th, 
may  be  quoted  here  as  one  of  his  many  matchless  sketches 
of  forever  memorable  scenes  : 

"  Washington  was  warmly  received  on  his  arrival,  espe- 
cially by  his  fellow  aides-de-camp,  Morris  and  Orme.  He 
was  just  in  time,  for  the  attack  upon  Fort  Duquesne  was 
to  be  made  on  the  following  day.  The  neighboring  coun- 
try had  been  reconnoitered  to  determine  upon  a  plan  of 
attack.  The  fort  stood  on  the  same  side  of  the  Mononga- 
hela  with  the  camp ;  but  there  was  a  narrow  pass  between 
them  of  about  two  miles,  with  the  river  on  the  left  and 
a  very  high  mountain  on  the  right,  and  in  its  present  state 
quite  impassable  for  carriages.  The  route  determined  on 
was  to  cross  the  Monongahela  by  a  ford  immediately  op- 
posite to  the  camp;  proceed  along  the  west  bank  of  the 
river,  for  about  five  miles,  then  recross  by  another  ford  to 
the  eastern  side,  and  push  on  to  the  fort.  The  river  at 
these  fords  was  shallow,  and  the  banks  were  not  steep. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  237 

"According  to  the  plan  of  arrangement,  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Gage,  with  the  advance,  was  to  cross  the  river  before 
daybreak,  march  to  the  second  ford,  and  recrossing  there, 
take  post  to  secure  the  passage  of  the  main  force.  The 
advance  was  to  be  composed  of  two  companies  of  grena- 
diers, one  hundred  and  sixty  infantry,  the  independent  com- 
pany of  Captain  Horatio  Gates,  and  two  six-pounders. 

"  Washington,  who  had  already  seen  enough  of  regular 
troops  to  doubt  their  infallibility  in  wild  bush-fighting,  and 
who  knew  the  dangerous  nature  of  the  ground  they  were 
to  traverse,  ventured  to  suggest,  that  on  the  following  day 
the  Virginia  rangers,  being  accustomed  to  the  country 
and  to  Indian  warfare,  might  be  thrown  in  the  advance. 
The  proposition  drew  an  angry  reply  from  the  general, 
indignant  very  probably,  that  a  young  provincial  officer 
should  presume  to  school  a  veteran  like  himself. 

"  Early  next  morning  (July  9th),  before  daylight.  Colonel 
Gage  crossed  with  the  advance.  He  was  followed  at  some 
distance  by  Sir  John  St.  Clair,  quartermaster-general,  with 
a  working  party  of  250  men,  to  make  roads  for  the  artillery 
and  baggage.  They  had  with  them  their  wagons  of  tools, 
and  two  six-pounders.  A  party  of  about  thirty  savages 
rushed  out  of  the  woods  as  Colonel  Gage  advanced,  but 
were  put  to  flight  before  they  had  done  any  harm. 

"  By  sunrise  the  main  body  turned  out  in  full  uniform, 
at  the  beating  of  'the  general,'  their  arms,  which  had 
been  cleaned  the  night  before,  were  charged  with  fresh 
cartridges.  The  officers  were  perfectly  equipped.  All 
looked  as  if  arrayed  for  a  fete,  rather  than  a  battle.  Wash- 
ington, who  was  still  weak  and  unwell,  mounted  his  horse 
and  joined  the  staff  of  the  general,  who  was  scrutinizing 
everything  with  the  eye  of  a  martinet.  As  it  was  sup- 
posed the  enemy  would  be  on  the  watch  for  the  crossing 
of  the  troops,  it  had  been  agreed  that  they  should  do  it 


238  WASHINGTON. 

in  the  greatest  order,  with  bayonets  fixed,  colors  flying, 
and  drums  and  fifes  beating  and  playing.*  They  accord- 
ingly made  a  gallant  appearance  as  they  forded  the  Mon- 
ongahela,  and  wound  along  its  banks  and  through  the 
open  forests,  gleaming  and  glittering  in  morning  sunshine 
and  stepping  buoyantly  to  the  '  Grenadiers'  March/ 

"  Washington,  with  his  keen  and  youthful  relish  for  mili- 
tary affairs,  was  delighted  with  their  perfect  order  and 
equipment,  so  different  from  the  rough  bush-fighters,  to 
which  he  had  been  accustomed.  Roused  to  new  life,  he 
forgot  his  recent  ailments,  and  broke  forth  in  expressions 
of  enjoyment  and  admiration  as  he  rode  in  company  with 
his  fellow  aides-de-camp,  Orme  and  Morris.  Often,  in 
after  life,  he  used  to  speak  of  the  effect  upon  him  of  the 
first  sight  of  a  well-disciplined  European  army,  marching 
in  high  confidence  and  bright  array,  on  the  eve  of  a  battle. 

"  About  noon  they  reached  the  second  ford.  Gage,  with 
the  advance,  was  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Monongahela, 
posted  according  to  orders;  but  the  river  bank  had  not 
been  sufficiently  sloped.  The  artillery  and  baggage  drew 
up  along  the  beach  and  hatted  until  one,  when  the  second 
crossing  took  place,  drums  beating,  fifes  playing,  and 
colors  flying  as  before.  When  all  had  passed,  there  was 
again  a  halt  close  by  a  small  stream  called  Frazier's  Run, 
until  the  general  arranged  the  order  of  march. 

"  First  went  the  advance,  under  Gage,  preceded  by  the 
engineers  and  guides  and  six  light  horsemen. 

"  Then  Sir  John  St.  Clair  and  the  working  party,  with 
their  wagons  and  the  two  six-pounders.  On  each  side 
were  thrown  out  four  flanking  parties. 

"  Then,  at  some  distance,  the  general  was  to  follow  with 
the  main  body,  the  artillery  and  baggage  were  preceded 
*  Orme's  Journal. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  239 

and  flanked  by  light  horse  and  squads  of  infantry;  while 
the  Virginian  and  other  provincial  troops  were  to  form 
the  rearguard. 

''  The  ground  before  them  was  level  until  about  half  a 
mile  from  the  river,  where  a  rising  ground,  covered  with 
long  grass,  low  bushes,  and  scattered  trees,  sloped  gently 
up  to  a  range  of  hills.  The  whole  country,  generally 
speaking,  was  a  forest,  with  no  clear  opening  but  the 
road,  which  was  about  twelve  feet  wide,  and  flanked  by 
two  ravines,  concealed  by  trees  and  thickets. 

"  Had  Braddock  been  schooled  in  the  warfare  of  the 
woods,  or  had  he  adopted  the  suggestions  of  Washington, 
which  he  rejected  so  impatiently,  he  would  have  thrown 
out  Indian  scouts  or  Virginian  rangers  in  the  advance,  and 
on  the  flanks,  to  beat  up  the  woods  and  ravines;  but  as 
has  been  sarcastically  observed,  he  suffered  his  troops  to 
march  forward  through  the  center  of  the  plain,  with  merely 
their  usual  guides  and  flanking  parties,  '  as  if  in  a  re- 
view in  St.  James's  Park.' 

*'  It  was  now  near  2  o'clock.  The  advanced  party  and 
the  working  party  had  crossed  the  plain  and  were  ascend- 
ing the  rising  ground.  Braddock  was  about  to  follow  with 
the  main  body,  and  had  given  the  word  to  march,  when 
he  heard  an  excessively  quick  and  heavy  firing  in  front. 
Washington,  who  was  with  the  general,  surmised  that  the 
evil  he  had  apprehended  had  come  to  pass.  For  want  of 
scouting  parties  ahead,  the  advance  parties  were  suddenly 
and  warmly  attacked.  Braddock  ordered  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Burton  to  hasten  to  their  asistance  with  the  vanguard 
of  the  main  body,  800  strong.  The  residue,  400,  were 
halted,  and  posted  to  protect  the  artillery  and  baggage. 

"  The  firing  continued  with  fearful  yelling.  There  was  a 
terrible  uproar.  By  the  general's  orders  an  aide-de-camp 
spurred  forward  to  bring  him  an  account  of  the  nature  of 


240  WASHINGTON, 

the  attack.  Without  waiting  for  his  return,  the  general 
himself,  finding  the  turmoil  increase,  moved  forward,  leav- 
ing Sir  Peter  Halket  with  the  command  of  the  baggage. 

The  van  of  the  advance  had  indeed  been  taken  by  sur- 
prise. It  was  composed  of  two  companies  of  pioneers  to 
cut  the  road,  and  two  flank  companies  of  grenadiers  to 
protect  them.  Suddenly  the  engineer  who  preceded  them 
to  mark  out  the  road  gave  the  alarm,  "  French  and  In- 
dians !  "  A  body  of  them  was  approaching  rapidly,  cheered 
on  by  a  Frenchman  in  gayly  fringed  hunting-shirt,  whose 
gorget  showed  him  to  be  an  officer.  Th.ere  was  sharp  fir- 
ing on  both  sides  at  first.  Several  of  the  enemy  fell ;  among 
them  their  leader;  but  a  murderous  fire  broke  out  from 
among  trees  and  a  ravine  on  the  right,  and  the  woods  re- 
sounded with  unearthly  whoops  and  yellings.  The  Indian 
rifle  was  at  work,  leveled  by  unseen  hands.  Most  of  the 
grenadiers  and  many  of  the  pioneers  were  shot  down. 
The  survivors  were  driven  in  on  the  advance. 

Gage  ordered  his  men  to  fix  bayonets  and  form  in  order 
of  battle.  They  did  so  in  hurry  and  trepidation.  He 
would  have  scaled  a  hill  on  the  right  whence  there  was 
the  severest  firing.  Not  a  platoon  would  quit  the  line  of 
march.  They  were  more  dismayed  by  the  yells  than  by 
the  rifles  of  the  unseen  savages.  The  latter  extended 
themselves  along  the  hill  and  in  the  ravines;  but  their 
whereabouts  was  only  known  by  their  demoniac  cries  and 
the  pufifs  of  smoke  from  their  rifles.  The  soldiers  fired 
wherever  they  saw  the  smoke.  Their  officers  tried  in  vain 
to  restrain  them  until  they  should  see  their  foe.  All 
orders  were  unheeded;  in  their  fright  they  shot  at  ran- 
dom, killing  some  of  their  own  flanking  parties,  and  of 
the  vanguard,  as  they  came  running  in.  The  covert  fire 
grew  more  intense.  In  a  short  time' most  of  the  officers 
and  many   of  the   men   of  the   advance  were  killed   or 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  241 

wounded.  Colonel  Gage  himself  received  a  wound.  The 
advance  fell  back  in  dismay  upon  Sir  John  St.  Clair's 
corps,  which  was  equally  dismayed.  The  cannon  belong- 
ing to  it  were  deserted. 

Colonel  Burton  had  come  up  with  the  reinforcement, 
and  was  forming  his  men  to  face  the  rising  ground  on  the 
right,  when  both  of  the  advanced  detachments  fell  back 
upon  him,  and  all  now  was  confusion. 

By  this  time  the  general  was  upon  the  ground.  He 
tried  to  rally  the  men,  "  They  would  fight,"  they  said, 
*'  if  they  could  see  their  enemy ;  but  it  was  useless  to  fire 
at  trees  and  bushes,  and  they  could  not  stand  to  be  shot 
down  by  an  invisible  foe." 

The  colors  were  advanced  in  dififerent  places  to  separate 
the  men  of  the  two  regiments.  The  general  ordered  the 
officers  to  form  the  men,  tell  them  off  into  small  divisions, 
and  advance  with  them;  but  the  soldiers  could  not  be 
prevailed  upon  either  by  threats  or  entreaties.  The  Vir- 
ginia troops,  accustomed  to  the  Indian  mode  of  fighting, 
scattered  themselves,  and  took  post  behind  trees,  whence 
they  could  pick  off  the  lurking  foe.  In  this  way  they,  in 
some  degree,  protected  the  regulars.  Washington  advised 
General  Braddock  to  adopt  the  same  plan  with  the  regfu- 
lars;  but  he  persisted  in  forming  them  into  platoons; 
consequently  they  were  cut  down  from  behind  logs  and 
trees  as  fast  as  they  could  advance.  Several  attempted  to 
take  to  the  trees  without  orders,  but  the  general  stormed 
at  them,  called  them  cowards,  and  even  struck  them  with 
the  flat  of  his  sword.  Several  of  the  Virginians,  who  had 
taken  post  and  were  doing  good  service  in  this  manner, 
were  slain  by  the  fire  of  the  regulars,  directed  wherever  a 
smoke  appeared  among  the  trees. 

The  officers  behaved  with  consummate  bravery;  and 
Washington  beheld  with  admiration  those  who.  in  camp 
i6 


242  WASHINGTON. 

or  on  the  march,  had  appeared  to  him  to  have  an  almost 
effeminate  regard  for  personal  ease  and  convenience,  now 
exposing  themselves  to  imminent  death,  with  a  courage 
that  kindled  with  the  thickening  horrors.  In  the  vain 
hope  of  inspiriting  the  men  tO'  drive  off  the  enemy  from 
the  flanks  and  regain  the  cannon,  they  would  dash  for- 
ward singly  or  in  groups.  They  were  invariably  shot 
down;  for  the  Indians  aimed  from  their  coverts  at  every 
one  on  horseback,  or  who  appeared  to  have  command. 

Some  were  killed  by  random  shot  of  their  own  men, 
who,  crowded  in  masses,  fired  with  affrighted  rapidity, 
but  without  aim.  Soldiers  in  the  front  ranks  were  killed 
by  those  in  the  rear.  Between  friend  and  foe,  the  slaughter 
of  the  officers  was  terrible.  All  this  while  the  woods  re- 
sounded with  the  unearthly  yellings  of  the  savages,  and 
now  and  then  one  of  them,  hideously  painted,  and  ruffling 
with  feathered  crest,  would  rush  forth  to  scalp  an  officer 
who  had  fallen,  or  seize  a  horse  galloping  wildly  without 
a  rider. 

Throughout  this  disastrous  day,  Washington  distin- 
guished himself  by  his  courage  and  presence  of  mind.  His 
brother  aides,  Orme  and  Morris,  were  wounded  and  dis- 
abled early  in  the  action,  and  the  whole  duty  of  carrying 
the  orders  of  the  general  devolved  on  him.  His  danger 
was  imminent  and  incessant.  He  was  in  every  part  of 
the  field,  a  conspicuous  mark  for  the  murderous  rifle.  Two 
horses  were  shot  under  him.  Four  bullets  passed  through 
his  coat.  His  escape  without  a  wound  was  almost  miracu- 
lous. Dr.  Craik,  who  was  on  the  field  attending  to  the 
wounded,  watched  him'  with  anxiety  as  he  rode  about  in 
the  most  exposed  manner,  and  used  to  say  that  he  ex- 
pected every  moment  to  see  him  fall.  At  one  time  he  was 
sent  to  the  main  body  to  bring  the  artillery  into  action. 
All  there  was  likewise  in  confusion;  for  the  Indians  had 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  .   243 

extended  themselves  along  the  ravine  so  as  to  flank  the 
reserve  and  carry  slaughter  into  the  ranks.  Sir  Peter  Hal- 
ket  had  been  shot  down  at  the  head  of  his  regiment.  The 
men  who  should  have  served  the  guns  were  paralyzed. 
Had  they  raked  the  ravines  with  grape-shot  the  day  might 
have  been  saved.  In  his  ardor  Washington  sprang  from 
his  horse,  wheeled  and  pointed  a  brass  field-piece  with  his 
own  hand,  and  directed  an  effective  discharge  into  the 
woods;  but  neither  his  efforts  nor  example  were  of  avail. 
The  men  could  not  be  kept  to  the  guns. 

Braddock  still  remained  in  the  center  of  the  field,  in  the 
desperate  hope  of  retrieving  the  fortunes  of  the  day.  The 
Virginia  rangers,  who  had  been  most  efficient  in  covering 
his  position,  were  nearly  all  killed  or  wounded.  His  sec- 
retary, Shirley,  had  fallen  by  his  side.  Many  of  his  officers 
had  been  slain  within  his  sight,  and  many  of  his  guard 
of  Virginia  light  horse.  Five  horses  had  been  killed  under 
him ;  still  he  kept  his  ground,  vainly  endeavoring  to  check 
the  flight  of  his  men,  or  at  least  to  effect  their  retreat 
in  good  order.  At  length  a  bullet  passed  through  his 
right  arm  and  lodged  itself  in  his  lungs.  He  fell  from 
his  horse,  but  was  caught  by  Captain  Stewart  of  the 
Virginia  guards,  who,  with  the  assistance  of  another 
American,  and  a  servant,  placed  him  in  a  tumbril.  It 
was  with  much  difficulty  they  got  him  out  of  the  field  — 
in  his  despair  he  desired  to  be  left  there. 

The  rout  now  became  complete.  Baggage,  stores,  ar- 
tillery, everything  was  abandoned.  The  wagoners  took 
each  a  horse  out  of  his  team  and  fled.  The  officers  were 
swept  off  with  the  men  in  this  headlong  flight.  It  was 
rendered  more  precipitate  by  the  shouts  and  yells  of  the 
savages,  numbers  of  whom  rushed  forth  from  their  cov- 
erts, and  pursued  the  fugitives  to  the  river  side,  killing 
several  as  they  dashed  across  in  tumultuous  confusion. 


244  WASHINGTON. 

Fortunately  for  the  latter,  the  victors  gave  up  the  pursuit 
in  their  eagerness  to  collect  the  spoil. 

The  shattered  army  continued  its  flight  after  it  had 
crossed  the  Monongahela,  a  wretched  wreck  of  the  brilliant 
little  force  that  had  recently  gleamed  along  its  banks, 
confident  of  victory.  Out  of  eighty-six  officers,  twenty- 
six  had  been  killed,  and  thirty-six  wounded.  The  number 
of  rank  and  file  killed  and  wounded  was  upward  of  seven 
hundred.  The  Virginia  corps  had  suffered  the  most ;  one 
company  had  been  almost  annihilated,  another,  beside 
those  killed  and  wounded  in  the  ranks,  had  lost  all  its 
officers,  even  to  the  corporal. 

About  a  hundred  men  were  brought  to  a  halt  about  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  ford  of  the  river.  Here  was 
Braddock,  with  his  wounded  aides-de-camp  and  some  of 
his  officers.  Dr.  Craik  dressing  his  wounds,  and  Washing- 
ton attending  him  with  faithful  assiduity.  Braddock  was 
still  able  to  give  orders,  and  had  a  faint  hope  of  being 
able  to  keep  possession  of  the  ground  until  reinforced. 
Most  of  the  men  were  stationed  in  a  very  advantageous 
spot  about  two  hundred  yards  from  the  road;  and  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Burton  posted  out  small  parties  and  sen- 
tinels. Before  an  hour  had  elapsed  most  of  the  men  had 
stolen  oflf.  Being  thus  deserted,  Braddock  and  his  .officers 
continued  their  retreat ;  he  would  have  mounted  his  horse, 
but  was  unable,  and  had  to  be  carried  by  soldiers.  Orme 
and  Morris  were  placed  on  litters  borne  by  horses  They 
were  subsequently  joined  by  Colonel  Gage  with  eighty 
men  whom  he  had  rallied. 

Washington,  in  the  meantime,  notwithstanding  his  weak 
state,  being  found  most  efficient  in  frontier  service,  was 
sent  to  Colonel  Dunbar's  camp,  forty  miles  distant,  with 
orders  for  him  to  hurry  forward  provisions,  hospital  stores, 
and  wagons  for  the  wounded,  under  the  escort  of  two 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  245 

grenadier  companies.  It  was  a  hard  and  a  melancholy 
ride  throughout  the  night  and  the  following  day.  The 
tidings  of  the  defeat  preceded  him,  borne  by  the  wagoners, 
who  had  mounted  their  horses  on  Braddock's  fall,  and 
fled  from  the  field  of  battle.  They  had  arrived,  haggard, 
at  Dunbar's  camp  at  midday;  the  Indians  yells  still  ring- 
ing in  their  ears.  **A11  was  lost !  "  they  cried.  "  Brad- 
dock  was  killed!  They  had  seen  wounded  officers  borne 
off  from  the  field  in  bloody  sheets!  The  troops  were  all 
cut  to  pieces !  "  A  panic  fell  upon  the  camp.  The  drums 
beat  to  arms.  Many  of  the  soldiers,  wagoners,  and  at- 
tendants, took  to  flight;  but  most  of  them  were  forced 
back  by  the  sentinels. 

Washington  arrived  at  the  camp  in  the  evening,  and 
found  the  agitation  still  prevailing.  The  orders  which  he 
brought  were  executed  during  the  night,  and  he  was  in 
the  saddle  early  in  the  morning  accompanying  the  convoy 
of  supplies.  At  Gist's  plantation,  about  thirteen  miles  off, 
he  met  Gage  and  his  scanty  force  escortin?g  Braddock  and 
his  wounded  officers.  Captain  Stewart  and  a  sad  remnant 
of  the  Virginia  light  horse  still  accompanied  the  general 
as  his  guard.  The  captain  had  been  unremitting  in  his 
attentions  to  him  during  the  retreat.  There  was  a  halt  of 
one  day  at  Dunbar's  camp  for  the  repose  and  relief  of 
the  wounded.  On  the  13th  they  resumed  their  melancholy 
march,  and  that  night  reached  the  Great  Meadows. 

The  proud  spirit  of  Braddock  was  broken  by  his  de- 
feat. He  remained  silent  the  first  evening  after  the  battle, 
only  ejaculating  at  night,  "  Who  would  have  thought  it !  " 
He  was  equally  silent  the  following  day;  yet  hope  still 
seemed  to  linger  in  his  breast,  from  another  ejaculation : 
"  We  shall  better  know  how  to  deal  with  them  another 
time!" 

He  was  grateful  for  the  attentions  paid  to  him  by  Cap- 


246  WASHINGTON. 

tain  Stewart  and  Washington,  and  more  than  once,  it  is 
said,  expressed  his  admiration  of  the  gallantry  displayed 
by  the  Virginians  in  the  action.  It  is  said,  moreover,  that 
in  his  last  moments  he  apologized  to  Washington  for  the 
petulance  with  which  he  had  rejected  his  advice,  and  be- 
queathed to  him  his  favorite  charger,  and  his  faithful  ser- 
vant, Bishop,  who  had  helped  to  convey  him  from  the  field. 

Some  of  these  facts,  it  is  true,  rest  on  tradition,  yet  we 
are  willing  to  believe  them,  as  they  impart  a  gleam  of 
just  and  generous  feeling  to  his  closing  scene.  He  died 
on  the  night  of  the  13th,  at  the  Great  Meadows,  the  place 
of  Washington's  discomfiture  in  the  previous  year.  His 
obsequies  were  performed  before  break  of  day.  The 
chaplain  having  been  wounded,  Washington  read  the  fu- 
neral service.  All  was  done  in  sadness,  and  without  pa- 
rade, so  as  not  to  attract  the  attention  of  lurking  savages, 
who  might  discover  and  outrage  his  grave."]'*' 

Before  the  occurrence  of  the  disastrous  affair  at  the 
Monongahela,  Braddock  received  an  offer  of  the  services 
of  a  hundred  friendly  Indians.  But  so  self-confident  was 
he,  and  so  contemptuous  was  his  opinion  of  the  savages 
and  their  mode  of  warfare,  that,  regardless  of  Washing- 
ton's counsels  on  the  subject,  he  treated  their  offer  with 
cold  and  even  offensive  indifference.  Had  he  employed 
them  as  scouts,  they  would  undoubtedly  have  discovered 
the  enemy's  ambuscade  and  have  enabled  him  to  antici- 
pate their  fatal  stratagem;  and,  by  means  of  the  grape- 
shot  of  a  few  field  pieces,  not  only  to  reveal  the  hiding 
places  of  the  invisible  foe,  but  to  convert  their  ravines 
from  places  of  security  into  vast  repositories  of  the  dead. 

In  the  confidence  of  power,  he  appears  to  have  dis- 
dained the  customary  prudential  measures  for  discovering 
the  enemy's  plans  and  detecting  their  machinations. 

*  See  Irving,  Vol.  I,  p.  230. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  247 

On  the  other  hand,  M.  Contrecoeur,  commandant  of 
the  French  fort,  resorted  to  every  practicable  expedient 
to  ascertain,  in  detail,  whatever  he  required  to  know  re- 
specting Braddock's  army  and  its  movements.  He  was 
convinced  that  the  thought  of  contending  with  the  British 
army  in  a  pitched  battle  was  preposterous.  He  was  at 
a  loss  to  decide  in  what  manner  he  could  most  judiciously 
receive  it.  At  this  crisis  one  of  his  captains,  M.  Beaujeu, 
volunteered,  with  a  mixed  party  of  French,  Canadians, 
and  Indians,  to  annoy  the  British  forces  while  crossing 
the  Monongahela  and  to  retard  their  progress  toward 
the  fort.  Arriving  too  late  to  effect  their  purpose  at  the 
river,  Beaujeu  and  his  party  betook  themselves  to  the 
ravines,  and  lay  in  ambush  behind  trees  and  in  the  long 
grass  with  which  the  ravines  were  skirted.  They  were 
in  all  but  about  850  men,  including  600  Indians.  They 
thought  not  for  a  moment  of  being  able  to  put  to  rout 
the  British  army.  But  on  this  occasion  as  on  many 
others  in  the  history  of  war,  presumptuous  confidence 
was  suddenly  converted  into  dismay;  and  inferior  num- 
bers were  awarded  the  success  of  a  triumph,  alike  unex- 
pected and  wonderful. 

Amid  the  prevailing  gloom  of  this  melancholy  scene, 
the  mind  finds  a  pleasing  rehef  in  contemplating  the  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  Washington.  When  all  the  other 
mounted  officers  of  Braddock's  army  were,  without  ex- 
ception, slain  or  disabled,  the  Virginian  aide-de-camp, 
mysteriously  protected  with  a  view  to  the  fulfillment  of 
a  high  destiny,  was  preserved  from  death  and  was  not 
even  wounded.  His  friend,  Dr.  Craik,  who  was  a  witness 
of  this  remarkable  divine  interposition,  observed :  "  I  ex- 
pected every  moment  to  see  him  fall.  His  duty  and  situa- 
tion exposed  him  to  every  danger.       Nothing   but   the 


248  WASHINGTON. 

superintending  care  of  Providence  could  have  saved  him 
from  the  fate  of  all  around  him."  He  was  suffering  from 
the  effect  of  his  debilitating  fever,  and  he  was  then  on 
horseback  for  the  first  time  after  his  partial  recovery; 
but  he  displayed,  as  if  acting  under  the  control  of  a  super- 
human impulse,  the  most  extraordinary  presence  of  mind, 
accompanied  with  intrepidity,  firmness,  discretion,  and 
sound  judgment. 

And  his  generous  and  kind  sympathies  also  were  in 
active  exercise.  He  had  been  assisted  by  Captain  Stew- 
art, of  the  Virginia  Guards,  and  by  a  servant,  in  bearing 
the  wounded  general  from  the  field;  but,  on  consigning 
him  to  the  captain's  special  care,  he  had  immediately  re- 
turned to  his  post  of  duty  and  of  danger.  With  spirit 
and  skill  he  rallied  the  panic-stricken  troops  after  their 
having  crossed  the  Monongahela.  It  now  devolved  upon 
him  to  hasten  to  the  rear  detachment  of  the  army  and 
order  wagons  for  the  wounded ;  and  he  accomplished  this, 
to  the  relief  of  many  a  suffering  officer  and  soldier. 

The  particular  and  important  duties  which,  in  the  order- 
ing of  events,  were  successively  assigned  to  him,  and 
which  he  faithfully  performed,  conspired  to  commend  his 
character  and  conduct  to  universal  admiration.  The  story 
spread  of  his  being  endowed  with  a  charmed  life;  and 
his  friends  and  countrymen  spontaneously  indulged  in 
glowing  anticipations  of  the  future  of  his  history.  An 
eloquent  preacher  of  the  time,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Davies, 
afterward  president  of  Princeton  College,  in  a  sermon 
preached  before  one  of  the  volunteer  companies,  com- 
mented upon  the  prevailing  military  spirit,  and  said:  "As 
a  remarkable  instance  of  this,  I  may  point  out  to  the 
public  that  heroic  youth,  Colonel  Washington,  whom  I 
cannot  but  hope  Providence  has  hitherto  preserved  in  so 


UFE   AND   TIMES.  249 

signal  a  manner  for  some  important  service  to  his 
country."* 

[One  author,  with  surprising  misinformation  and  depend- 
ence on  imagination,  garnishes  a  meager  sketch  of  Brad- 
dock's  defeat  with  these  amazingly  false  references  to 
Washington : 

''As  soon  as  his  fever  abated  a  little,  he  left  Colonel 
Dunbar,  and  being  unable  to  sit  on  a  horse,  was  conveyed 
to  the  front  in  a  wagon. 

"  Washington  at  the  outset,  flung  himself  headlong  into 
the  fight.  *  *  *  All  through  that  dreadful  carnage  he 
rode  fiercely  about,  raging  with  the  excitement  of  battle. 

"  Splendidly  reckless  on  the  day  of  battle,  *  *  *  he 
comes  before  us^  above  all  things  the  fighting  man,  hot- 
blooded  and  fierce  in  action." 

Washington's  fever  had  abated  as  early  as  June  23,  and 
it  was  not  until  July  3,  that  he  started  to  overtake  Brad- 
dock.  On  July  9  he  did  no  flinging  of  himself  headlong 
into  the  battle.  He  was  Braddock's  aide,  strictly  confined 
to  carrying  Braddock's  orders,  except  as  some  action  came 
within  his  reach,  as  when  he  was  sent  to  order  the  artil- 
lery to  get  at  work,  and  sprang  from  his  horse  to  wheel 
and  point  a  brass  field-piece.  He  did  no  riding  fiercely 
about,  raging  with  the  excitement  of  battle,  and  the  writer 
had  no  more  reason  for  putting  up  stuff  of  this  kind  than  he 
would  have  had  for  saying  that  Washington  took  to  the 
woods  in  mad  fool- fury  to  get  a  swordcut  at  the  savages, 
and  yelled  so  loud  that  he  was  heard  at  Mount  Vernon. 
"Above  all  things,  the  fighting  man,  hot-blooded  and  fierce 
in  action,"  is  a  description  of  Washington  which  could  not 
well  be  more  grotesquely  and  thoroughly  false.] 

*  "  Religion  and  Patriotism  the  Constituents  of  a  Good  Soldier," 
a  sermon  preached  August  17,  1755. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

WASHINGTON,  THE  VIRGINIA  COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF. 

1755-1757. 

THE  deplorable  result  of  Braddock's  formidable  ex- 
pedition not  only  created  a  general  and  startling 
sensation  throughout  the  Colonies,  but  prompted 
new  and  powerful  emotions  of  self-reliance. 

And  the  subsequent  conduct  of  Colonel  Dunbar  in  aban- 
doning the  Colonies  tended  greatly  to  increase  this  state 
of  feeling.  In  command  of  the  rear  detachment  of  Brad- 
dock's  army  he  was  forty  miles  from  the  scene  of  action 
during  the  battle  of  the  Monongahela.  But  the  retreating 
troops  of  the  advanced  detachment  fell  back  upon  his 
party,  and  in  the  consternation  of  their  flight  they  spread 
the  contagion  of  their  panic. 

To  disappoint  the  French  and  Indians  should  they  con- 
tinue in  pursuit,  the  artillery  and  all  the  stores  that  could 
not  be  removed  were  now  destroyed,  and  the  colonel  hur- 
ried on  his  march.  He  was  at  that  time  in  command  of 
more  than  1,000  men.  The  important  obligation  devolved 
upon  him  to  protect  the  settlements.  He  received  urgent 
communications  from  the  Governors  of  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, and  Pennsylvania,  requesting  that  detachments  of  his 
army  might  be  posted  on  their  frontiers,  now  in  a  state  of 
great  alarm.  But  regardless  of  their  appeals  and  adopting 
no  measures  of  resistance  nor  of  defense  in  behalf  of  the 
Colonies,  be  rapidly  pursued  his  march  to  Philadelphia  to 

(250) 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  251 

what  he  called  his  winter  quarters,  for  the  purpose,  it  would 
appear,  rather  of  receiving  than  of  affording  protection. 

The  complaints  created  by  this  proceeding  were  of  course 
loud  and  general.  In  the  irritation  which  it  produced  the 
intrepidity  of  brave  Virginia  troops  was  invidiously  con- 
trasted with  the  cowardly  conduct  of  professed  veterans. 
In  some  terse  remarks  on  the  subject  Dr.  Franklin  says: 
**  This  whole  transaction  gave  us  Americans  the  first  sus- 
picion that  our  exalted  ideas  of  the  prowess  of  British  regu- 
lar troops  had  not  been  well  founded."* 

The  news  of  Dunbar's  conduct  was  received  while  the 
Virginia  Assembly  was  in  session.  And  it  convinced  the 
minds  of  members  of  the  Assembly  that  the  time  had  come 
for  a  resort  to  vigorous  measures  of  self-preservation. 

[General  Braddock's  expedition  had  been  especially 
aimed  at  the  operations  of  the  French  on  the  Ohio,  but  in 
connection  therewith  plans  had  been  determined  upon  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Governors,  April  14,  1755,  with  Brad- 
dock  and  Commodore  Keppel,  for  expeditions  against  the 
French,  both  at  Niagara  and  at  Crown  Point.  Governor 
Shirley,  with  Sir  William  Pepperell's  regiments  and  some 
New  York  companies,  was  to  attack  the  force  of  Indians 
and  French  at  Niagara,  about  the  end  of  June,  and  Col. 
Wm.  Johnson,  the  rich  Mohawk  country  potentate,  with 
a  large  force  of  the  warriors  of  the  Six  Nations,  was  to 
proceed  against  Crown  Point. 

But  with  Braddock's  overthrow,  and  the  slaughter  of 
his  army  which  sent  terror  everywhere  that  the  news  came, 
the  plans  of  Shirley  against  Niagara  went  to  pieces ;  the 
men  engaged  for  river  transportation  of  stores  evaded 
serving ;  it  was  near  the  end  of  August  before  the  expedi- 
tion was  in  force  at  Oswego ;  and  with  delays  and  troubles 

*Dr.   Franklin's   "Autobiography,"  near  the  close  of  chap,   x; 
Works,  vol.  I,  p.  192. 


252  WASHINGTON. 

there,  Shirley  did  no  more  than  to  commence  fortifying, 
and  leaving  700  men  as  a  garrison,  returned  to  Albany  in 
October  with  the  main  part  of  his  forces. 

The  plans  for  Johnson's  attack  upon  Crown  Point  were 
hardly  more  successful.  The  expedition  ascended  the 
Hudson  to  the  point  from  which  land  carriage  crossed  to 
the  lower  end  of  the  lake,  to  which  Johnson  gave  the  name 
of  Lake  George.  Here  a  fort  was  begun,  to  which  was 
given  later  the  name  of  Fort  Edward.  Leaving  General 
Lyman  to  complete  and  defend  the  fort,  Johnson  pro- 
ceeded to  Lake  George  with  a  force  of  5,000  to  6,000 
troops  of  New  York  and  New  England,  and  a  very  large 
contingent  of  Mohawk  Indians.  The  French  commander 
recently  arrived  at  Quebec,  Baron  de  Dieskau,  with  a  force 
of  3,000  men,  was  aiming  at  Oswego,  and  had  gone  to 
Montreal,  and  sent  forward  700  of  his  troops,  when  the 
news  came  of  Johnson's  formidable  expedition  on  the 
way  to  Crown  Point,  and  perhaps  to  Canada.  The  Baron 
took  post  at  Crown  Point  with  regular  troops,  800  Ca- 
nadians, and  700  Indians,  and  he  thence  set  off  for  Fort 
Edward,  from  which  Johnson  had  advanced  to  Lake 
George.  He  hoped  to  surprise  the  fort,  and  make  a  dash 
south  for  the  destruction  of  Albany  and  Schenectady,  and 
thus  cut  off  all  communication  with  Oswego.  Johnson 
meanwhile,  in  camp  at  the  south  end  of  Lake  George, 
awaiting  the  boat  service  for  proceeding  north,  learned 
September  7th,  of  the  peril  of  French  attack  at  Fort  Ed- 
ward, and  the  next  morning  sent  Colonel  Williams  with 
1,000  men  and  200  Indians,  to  intercept  the  French. 
Within  two  hours,  heavy  firing,  which  soon  indicated  that 
Williams  was  retreating,  caused  Johnson's  command  to 
take  measures  for  defense,  such  as  were  possible  with  only 
a  breastwork  of  trees,  some  heavy  cannon  on  the  front, 
and  a  field-piece  on  an  eminence  on  the  left  flank.     The 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  253 

fleeing  troops  of  Williams  arriving  in  wild  confusion, 
with  the  enemy  in  close  pursuit,  and  soon  after  the  French 
regulars  in  battle  line,  with  Canadians  and  Indians,  seemed 
to  portend  overwhelming  defeat  for  Johnson's  command, 
and  the  capture  of  his  camp.  In  the  moment  of  extremest 
peril,  however,  Dieskau's  Canadians  and  Indians  flinched 
from  direct  assault,  took  to  bush-fighting,  and  left  the 
baron  with  200  grenadiers  a  compact  target  for  the  artil- 
lery and  musketry  fire  of  Johnson's  garrison,  and  at  a 
distance  short  of  any  serious  effect  of  their  platoon  firing. 
The  action  became  more  and  more  one  of  British  success, 
until  the  French  grenadiers,  terribly  cut  up,  gave  way, 
and  Johnson's  men  with  the  Mohawks  issued  from  their 
camp  in  a  fierce  onset,  which  became  a  slaughter  of  the 
assailants,  an  utter  rout  or  capture  of  the  French,  with 
their  gallant  commander  so  severely  wounded  as  to  result 
in  his  death.  It  appeared  that  the  plan  of  Dieskau  for 
surprising  Fort  Edward  he  was  obliged  to  change  because 
his  Canadians  and  Indians,  fearing  the  firq  of  cannon,  re- 
fused to  make  the  assault;  and  when  he  turned  back  to 
surprise  Johnson's  camp  the  same  hesitation  of  his  Cana- 
dian troops  and  Indian  allies  caused  the  disaster  with  which 
his  expedition  ended. 

Johnson,  on  his  part,  hesitating  to  advance  upon  Crown 
Point  until  he  could  leave  a  strong  fort  on  the  site  of 
his  camp,  consumed  the  season  in  building  a  stockaded 
fort,  which  he  named  Fort  William  Henry.] 

Washington,  still  suffering  from  the  effects  of  his  fever, 
remained  at  Mount  Vernon  for  at  least  temporary  relief 
from  toil,  and  for  the  recruiting  of  his  energies.  He  felt, 
with  the  whole  community,  that  an  important  crisis  had 
arrived.  The  military  spirit  was  abroad.  The  sound  of 
martial  music  and  the  signs  of  warlike  preparations  were 
heard  and  seen  at  every  step. 


254  WASHINGTON. 

[Augustine  Washington,  the  older  half-brother  of 
George,  was  at  this  time  a  member  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses in  session  at  Williamsburg,  and  to  him  Washing- 
ton wrote,  August  2,  1755 : 

"  The  pleasure  of  your  company  at  Mount  Vernon  al- 
ways did,  and  always  will,  afford  me  infinite  satisfaction; 
but  at  this  time,  I  am  too  sensible  how  needful  the  country 
is  of  all  its  members,  to  have  a  wish  to  hear  that  any  are 
absent  from  the  Assembly.  I  most  sincerely  wish  that 
unanimity  may  prevail  in  all  your  councils,  and  that  a 
happy  issue  may  attend  your  deliberations  at  this  im- 
portant crisis. 

"  I  am  not  able,  were  I  ever  so  willing,  to  meet  you  in 
town,  for  I  assure  you  it  is  with  some  difficulty,  and  with 
much  fatigue,  that  I  visit  my  plantations  in  the  Neck ;  so 
much  has  a  sickness  of  5  weeks'  continuance  reduced 
me.  But  though  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  meet  you 
there,  I  can  nevertheless  assure  you  that  I  am  so  little 
dispirited  at  what  has  happened,  that  I  am  always  ready 
and  always  willing,  to  render  my  country  any  services 
that  I  am  capable  of,  but  never  upon  the  terms  I  have 
done;  having  suffered  much  in  my  private  fortune,  be- 
sides impairing  one  of  the  best  of  constitutions.  I  was 
employed  to  go  a  journey  in  the  winter,  when  I  believe 
few  or  none  would  have  undertaken  it,  and  what  did  I 
get  by  it  ?  —  my  expenses  borne !  I  was  then  appointed, 
with  trifling  pay,  to  conduct  a  handful  of  men  to  the 
Ohio.  What  did  I  get  by  this  ?  Why,  after  putting  my- 
self to  a  considerable  expense  in  equipping  and  providing 
necessaries  for  the  campaign,  /  went  out,  was  soundly  beaten, 
and  lost  all!  Came  in,  and  had  my  commission  taken  from 
me,  or  in  other  words,  my  command  reduced,  under  pre- 
tense of  an  order  from  home  (England).  I  then  went 
out  a  volunteer  with  General  Braddock,  and  lost  all  my 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  255 

horses,  and  many  other  things.  But  this  being  a  volun- 
tary act,  I  ought  not  to  have  mentioned  it;  nor  should 
I  have  done  it,  were  it  not  to  show  that  I  have  been  on 
the  losing  order  ever  since  I  entered  the  service^  which  is  now 
nearly  two  years. 

"  So  that  I  think  I  cannot  be  blamed,  should  I,  if  I 
leave  my  family  again,  endeavor  to  do  it  upon  such  terms 
as  to  prevent  my  suffering;  to  gain  by  it  being  the  least 
of  my  expectation. 

"  I  doubt  not  but  you  have  heard  the  particulars  of  our 
shameful  defeat,  which  really  was  so  scandalous  that  I 
hate  to  mention  it.  You  desire  to  know  what  artillery 
was  taken  in  the  late  engagement.  It  is  easily  told.  We 
lost  all  that  we  carried  out,  excepting  two  six-pounders, 
and  a  few  cohorns,  that  were  left  with  Col.  Dunbar;  and 
the  cohorns  have  since  been  destroyed  to  expedite  his 
flight.  You  also  ask,  whether  I  think  the  forces  can  march 
out  again  this  fall.  I  answer,  I  think  it  impossible,  at 
least,  for  them  to  do  the  French  any  damage  (unless  it 
be  by  starving  them),  for  want  of  a  proper  train  of  artil- 
lery; yet  they  may  be  very  serviceable  in  erecting  small 
fortresses  at  convenient  places  to  deposit  provisions  in, 
by  which  means  the  country  will  be  eased  of  an  immense 
expense  in  the  carriage,  and  it  will  also  be  a  means  of 
securing  retreat,  if  we  should  be  put  to  the  rout  again. 
The  success  of  this  though  will  depend  greatly  upon  what 
Gov.  Shirley  does  at  Niagara;  for,  if  he  succeeds,  their 
communication  with  Canada  will  be  entirely  cut  ofif. 

"  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  guess  at  the  number  of  re- 
cruits that  may  be  wanting,  as  that  must  depend  altogether 
upon  the  strength  of  the  French  on  the  Ohio,  which,  to 
my  great  astonishment,  we  were  always  strangers  to. 

"  I  thank  you  very  heartily  for  your  kind  offer  of  a 
chair,  and  for  your  goodness  in  sending  my  things ;  and, 


356  WASHINGTON, 

after  begging  you  to  excuse  the  imperfections  of  the 
above,  (which  are,  in  part,  owing  to  my  having  much 
company  that  hurries  me,)  I  shall  conclude,  Dear  Sir,  your 
most  affectionate  brother." 

It  was  with  this  older  half-brother  that  Washington  had 
spent  the  four  years  of  schooling  after  his  father's  death. 
The  terms  of  cordial  pleasure  and  affection  used  by  Wash- 
ington do  not  preclude  formal  respect. 

The  results  of  Washington's  venture  with  Braddock,  to 
his  health,  as  well  as  exposure  to  perils  of  battle,  naturally 
prompted  the  young  soldier's  mother  to  give  expression 
to  her  anxiety  not  to  have  him  venture  again;  and  to  her 
he  replied  as  follows : 

"  Honored  Madam :  If  it  is  in  my  power  to  avoid  going 
to  the  Ohio  again,  I  shall;  but  if  the  command  is  pressed 
upon  me  by  the  general  voice  of  the  country,  and  offered  upon 
such  terms  as  cannot  be  objected  against,  it  would  reflect 
dishonor  on  me  to  refuse  it;  and  that,  I  am  sure,  must, 
and  ought,  to  give  you  greater  uneasiness  than  my  going 
in  an  honorable  command.  Upon  no  other  terms  will  I 
accept  it.  At  present  I  have  no  proposals  made  to  me, 
nor  have  I  any  advice  of  such  an  intention,  except  from 
private  hands." 

At  the  Virginia  capital  the  question  of  recognition  of 
Washington's  military  abilities  and  services  was  much  agi- 
tated, and  while  it  was  known  that  Gov.  Dinwiddle's  per- 
sonal favorite  was  Colonel  Innes,*  it  was  understood  that 

*  Colonel  James  Innes  was  from  Scotland,  a  settler  in  New 
Hanover,  North  Carolina.  He  had  seen  service  in  the  British  ex- 
pedition of  1740-1741  against  Carthagena.  In  1754  he  marched 
from  North  CaroHna  with  350  men,  reaching  Winchester  June 
30tn,  and  upon  Colonel  Fry's  death  Dinwiddie  gave  him  the  com- 
mand of  the  Ohio  expedition,  at  the  same  time  giving  Washington 
the  command  of  the  Virginia  troops.  The  North  Carolina  troops 
disbanded    before    joining    Washington's.      Dinwiddie    wrote    to 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  257 

the  weight  of  Washington's  claims  was  conceded  by  his 
excellency;  and  Washington's  friends  wrote  urging  him 
to  appear  on  the  scene,  with  a  view  to  its  being  known 
that  he  would  not  refuse  to  serve  as  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Virginia  forces,  if  the  terms  insisted  on  by  him 
were  comA)lied  with.  To  Mr.  Warner  Lewis,  one  of  the 
friends  in  correspondence  with  Washington,  he  wrote,  Au- 
gust 14th,  as  follows: 

"  After  returning  you  my  most  sincere  and  grateful 
thanks  for  your  kind  condolence  on  my  late  indisposition, 
and  for  the  generous  (and  give  me  leave  farther  to  say) 
partial  opinion  you  have  entertained  of  my  military  abili- 
ties, I  must  express  my  concern  for  not  having  it  in  my 
power  to  meet  you,  and  other  friends  who  have  signified 
their  desire  of  seeing  me  in  Williamsburg. 

"  Your  letter  only  came  to  hand  at  nine  last  night, 
and  you  inform  me  that  the  Assembly  will  break  up  the 
latter  end  of  the  week,  which  allows  a  time  too  short  in 
which  to  perform  a  journey  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  miles, 
especially  by  a  person  in  my  weak  and  feeble  condition; 
for,  although  I  am  happily  recovered  from  the  disorder, 
which  brought  me  to  so  low  an  ebb,  by  a  sickness  of 
nearly  five  weeks  continuance,  yet  my  strength  is  not  re- 
turned to  me.  Had  I  got  timely  notice,  I  would  have  at- 
tempted the  ride,  by  slow  and  easy  journeys,  if  it  had 

Washington,  June  25,  1754,  that  in  view  of  the  fact  that  some  of 
the  troops  were  organized  as  independent  companies,  he  had  or- 
dered Colonel  Innes  to  command  in  chief,  and  Washington  to  be 
second  in  command.  About  a  year  later,  when  Washington  had 
resigned  from  the  army,  and  was  serving  as  a  volunteer  aide  with 
Braddock,  he  said  in  a  letter  of  June  7,  1755,  to  William  Fairfax: 
"  General  Innes  has  accepted  a  commission  to  be  Governor  of 
Fort  Cumberland,  where  he  is  to  reside;  and  will  shortly  receive 
another  to  be  hangman,  or  something  of  that  kind,  and  for  which 
he  is  equally  qualified." 
17 


258  WASHINGTON. 

been  only  for  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  my  friends,  who, 
I  flatter  myself,  from  what  you  say,  are  kind  enough  to 
sympathize  in  my  good  and  evil  fortunes. 

"  The  chief  reason  (next  to  indisposition),  that  prevented 
me  from  coming  down  to  this  Assembly,  was  a  determina- 
tion not  to  offer  my  services ;  and  that  determination  pro- 
ceeded from  the  following  reasons:  First,  a  belief  that 
I  could  not  get  a  command  upon  such  terms  as  I  should 
incline  to  accept;  for  I  must  confess  to  you,  that  I  never 
will  quit  my  family,  injure  my  fortune,  and  (above  all) 
impair  my  health,  to  run  the  risk  of  such  changes  and 
vicissitudes  as  I  have  met  with,  but  shall  expect,  if  I  am 
employed  again,  to  have  something  certain. 

"  Again,  was  I  to  accept  the  command,  I  should  insist 
upon  some  things  which  ignorance  and  inexperience  made 
me  overlook  before,  particularly  that  of  having  the  offi- 
cers appointed,  in  some  measure,  with  my  advice  and  with 
my  concurrence ;  for,  I  must  add,  I  think  a  commanding 
officer's  not  having  this  liberty  appears  to  me  to  be  a 
strange  thing,  when  it  is  considered  how  much  the  con- 
duct and  bravery  of  an  officer  influence  the  men,  how 
much  a  commanding  officer  is  answerable  for  the  behavior 
of  the  inferior  officers,  and  how  much  his  good  or  ill  suc- 
cess, in  time  of  action,  depends  upon  the  conduct  of  each 
particular  one,  especially  too,  in  this  kind  of  fighting, 
where,  being  dispersed,  each  and  every  one  of  them  at 
that  time  has  a  greater  liberty  to  misbehave  than  if  he 
were  [in  a  body  of  men]  regularly  and  compactly  drawn 
up  under  the  eyes  of  his  superior  officer. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  how  little  credit  is  given  to  a  com- 
mander, who,  after  a  defeat,  in  relating  the  cause  of  it, 
justly  lays  the  blame  on  some  individual,  whose  cowardly 
behavior  betrayed  the  whole  to  ruin!  How  little  does 
the  world  consider  the  circumstances,  and  how  apt  are 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  259 

mankind  to  level  their  vindictive  censures  against  the  un- 
fortunate chief,  who  perhaps  merited  least  of  the  blame ! 

"  Does  it  not  then  appear  that  the  appointing  of  offi- 
cers is  a  thing  of  the  utmost  consequence;  a  thing  that 
requires  the  greates,t  circumspection  ?  Ought  it  to  be  left 
to  blind  chance,  or,  what  is  still  worse,  ta  partiality? 
Should  it  not  be  left  to  a  man  whose  life  (and  what  is 
still  dearer,  his  honor)  depends  upon  their  good  behavior  ? 

"  There  are  necessary  officers  yet  wanting,  for  whom  no 
provision  has  been  made.  A  small  military  chest  is  so 
absolutely  necessary,  that  it  is  impossible  to  do  without, 
nor  can  any  man  conduct  an  affair  of  this  kind  who  has 
it  not. 

"  These  things  I  should  expect  if  the  appointment  fell 
upon  me. 

"  But,  besides  all  these,  I  had  other  reasons,  which 
withheld  me  from  offering  my  services.  I  believe  our  cir- 
cumstances are  brought  to  that  unhappy  dilemma,  that 
no  man  can  gain  any  honor  by  conducting  our  forces  at 
this  time,  but  will  rather  lose  in  his  reputation  if  he  at- 
tempts it.  For  I  am  confident,  the  progress  of  military 
movements  must  be  slow,  for  want  of  conveniences  to 
transport  our  provisions,  ammunition,  and  stores  over  the 
mountain ;  occasioned,  in  a  great  measure,  by  the  late  ill- 
treatment  of  the  wagoners  and  horsedrivers,  who  have 
received  little  compensation  for  their  labor,  and  nothing 
for  their  lost  horses  and  wagons;  which  will  be  an  infal- 
lible cause  of  preventing  all  from  assisting  that  are  not 
compelled.  So  that  I  am  fully  sensible,  whoever  under- 
takes this  command  will  meet  with  such  insurmountable 
obstacles  that  he  will  soon  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  an 
idle,  indolent  body ;  have  his  conduct  criticised ;  and  meet 
perhaps  with  opprobrious  abuse,  when  it  may  be  as  much 


260  WASHINGTON, 

out  of  his  power  to  avoid  delays  as  it  would  to  command 
the  raging  seas  in  a  storm. 

"  Viewing  these  things  in  the  light  I  do  has  no  small 
influence  upon  me,  as  I  am  very  apprehensive  I  should 
lose  what  at  present  constitutes  the  chief  part  gf  my  hap- 
piness, i.  e.,  the  esteem  and  notice  which  the  country  has 
been  pleased  to  honor  me  with. 

"  It  is  possible  you  may  infer  from  what  I  have  said 
that  my  intentions  are  to  decline  at  all  events;  but  my 
meaning  is  not  so.  I  am  determined  not  to  ofifer;  because 
to  solicit  the  command,  and  at  the  same  time  to  make 
my  proposals,  would  be  a  little  incongruous  and  would 
carry  with  it  the  face  of  self-sufficiency.  But  if  the  com- 
mand should  be  offered,  the  case  is  then  altered,  as  I 
should  be  at  liberty  to  make  such  objections  as  reason 
and  my  small  experience  had  pointed  out.  I  hope  you 
will  make  my  compliments  to  all  enquiring  friends. 

"  I  am,  dear  Warner,  your  most  affectionate  friend,  and 
obedient  servant."] 

The  House  of  Burgesses  made  a  liberal  appropriation 
for  the  public  service.  They  voted  to  Colonel  Washington 
and  to  all  the  surviving  officers  and  privates  with  him  at 
the  Monongahela,  a  liberal  grant,  in  consideration  of  "  their 
gallant  behavior  and  their  losses."  They  increased  the  regi- 
ment to  sixteen  companies,  and  they  appointed  Colonel 
Washington  to  the  chief  command  with  unusual  evidences 
of  their  consideration. 

His  character  and  talents  were  appreciated  more  highly 
than  ever.  He  was  the  favorite  soldier  and  the  military 
master-spirit  of  Virginia.  The  House  of  Burgesses  au- 
thorized him  to  name  his  field  officers ;  they  allowed  him 
an  aide-de-camp  and  secretary,  and  they  entitled  him  in  his 
commission  "  Commander-in-Chief  of  all  the  forces  raised, 
or  to  be  raised,  in  the  Colony  of  Virginia." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  261 

[The  date  of  the  governor's  commission  and  instructions 
to  Washington,  upon  his  appointment  as  Virginian  com- 
mander-in-chief, was  August  14,  1755,  when  Washington 
was  twenty-three  years  and  six  months  of  age.  The  gov- 
ernor's action  had  provided  for  raising  sixteen  companies, 
making  the  force  1,000  men,  to  be  incorporated  into  a 
regiment. 

To  Charles  Lewis,  at  this  time,  Washington  wrote  (Au- 
gust 14,  1755) :  "  I  wish,  my  Dear  Charles,  it  was  more 
in  my  power  than  it  is,  to  answer  the  favorable  opinion 
my  friends  have  conceived  of  my  military  abilities.  Let 
them  not  be  deceived;  I  am  unequal  to  the  task,  and  do 
assure  you  that  it  requires  more  experience  than  I  am 
master  of,  to  conduct  an  afifair  of  the  importance  that 
this  is  now  arisen  to."] 

Governor  Dinwiddie,  in  one  of  his  official  communica- 
tions to  the  British  Government,  spoke  of  the  Virginia 
colonel  as  "  a  man  of  great  merit  and  resolution ;  "  and  he 
added :  "  I  am  convinced  had  Braddock  survived  he  would 
have  recommended  him  to  royal  favor."  But  the  universal 
sentiment  of  the  people  was  far  more  efficacious  in  promot- 
ing his  influence  and  in  forwarding  his  ultimate  purposes 
than  all  that  could  have  been  derived  from  royal  favor.  It 
is  a  memorable  fact  that  Washington,  with  all  his  acknowl- 
edged merits,  was  never  favored  with  even  one  testimony 
of  approbation  from  the  King  or  the  ministry. 

[Dinwiddie  wrote  in  the  official  communication  men- 
tioned :  "  Our  officers  are  greatly  dispirited  for  want  of 
his  majesty's  commissions,  that,  when  they  join  the  regu- 
lars, they  may  have  some  rank ;  and  I  am  persuaded  it 
would  be  of  infinite  service,  if  his  Majesty  would  graciously 
please  to  honor  them  with  his  commissions,  the  same  as 
Gen.  Shirley's  and  Sir  William  Pepperell's  regiments."] 

It  was  but  a  month  after  his  return  from  the  Mononga- 


262  WASHINGTON. 

hela  that  he  received  his  new  commission.  But  he  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  his  office  promptly  and  energetically. 
He  visited  all  the  outposts,  even  to  Fort  Dinwiddle,  and 
acquired  a  particular  knowledge  of  his  field  of  labor. 

At  this  time  an  incursion  of  the  Indians  on  the  western 
border  of  the  province  created  great  alarm.  Their  ravages 
were  bloody  and  dreadful,  and  the  fears  which  they  created 
were  not  less  desolating  to  many  a  happy  home  on  the 
frontier.  A  detachment  of  the  militia  was  sent  against  the 
invaders;  a  prompt  and  severe  infliction  taught  them  that 
their  depredations  and  massacres  would  m.eet  with  speedy 
vengeance,  and  thus  they  were  effectually  restrained  for  a 
time  from  the  repetition  of  atrocities. 

The  militia  accomplished  an  important  object.  Their  ex- 
pedition was  attended  however  with  many  and  painful  evi- 
dences of  a  want  of  military  subordination  and  control. 
In  the  whole  militia  system  there  were  imperfections  and 
difficulties,  numerous  and  formidable,  arising  chiefly  from 
the  impotence  of  the  existing  army  regulations. 

As  a  measure  of  supreme  importance  the  revision  and 
remodeling  of  these  regulations  now  engaged  the  thoughts 
of  Washington.  He  made  it  the  constant  theme  of  his  com- 
munications to  the  Governor  and  the  Assembly;  he  rallied 
round  it  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  many  influential  men ; 
and  he  had  at  last  the  great  satisfaction  of  seeing  it  re- 
garded with  the  attention  which  it  deserved,  and  of  finding 
every  desirable  provision  made  for  a  proper  military  code. 

[To  John  Robinson,  speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses 
and  of  very  exceptional  eminence  as  a  Virginian  of  wealth, 
social  distinction,  and  political  importance,  Washington 
wrote  from  Alexandria,  September  ii,  1755: 

"  After  a  small  halt  at  Fredericksburg,  to  issue  out  or- 
ders to  the  recruiting  officers  appointed  to  that  rendez- 
vous, I  proceeded  to  this  place,  in  order  to  collect  a  return 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  263 

of  the  provisions,  clothing,  etc.,  that  were  lodged  here, 
an  exact  copy  of  which  I  herewith  send  you.  I  find,  after 
the  soldiers  have  their  short  allowances,  there  will  arise 
great  inconveniences,  if  stores  of  clothing  are  not  laid 
in  to  supply  their  wants;  particularly  shoes,  stockings, 
and  shirts,  for  these  are  the  least  durable  and  mostly 
needed. 

"  The  method  I  would  recommend  is,  for  the  country 
to  provide  these  things,  and  lodge  them,  or  a  convenient 
part  thereof,  in  the  hands  of  the  quartermaster,  who  may 
be  appointed  to  receive  and  deliver  them  to  the  soldiers, 
by  particular  orders  from  their  captains,  taking  care  to 
produce  these  orders,  and  proper  vouchers  for  the  deliv- 
ery, each  pay-day,  when  it  must  be  deducted  out  of  the 
soldier's  pay  who  receives  it.  And  then  this,  I  think, 
will  be  a  means  of  keeping  them  always  provided  and  fit 
for  duty,  preventing  the  officers  from  supplying  the  men, 
which  is  generally  attended  with  misunderstandings ;  and 
will  also  be  a  means  of  discouraging  followers  of  the  army 
from  demanding  such  exorbitant  prices,  as  is  usually  prac- 
ticed on  these  occasions.  However,  I  only  offer  this  as 
the  most  efficacious  method  I  can  at  present  think  of.  If 
any  other  more  eligible  can  be  found,  I  should  be  glad 
to  see  it  executed,  as  something  of  the  kind  must  be  done, 
otherwise  the  soldiers  will  be  barefoot,  etc.,  which  al- 
ways pleads  for  exemption  from  duty,  and,  indeed,  in 
the  approaching  season,  will  be  a  very  just  one.  You 
will  be  a  judge,  when  you  see  the  returns,  what  had  best 
be  done  with  the  provisions.  The  quantity  is  too  great 
for  the  present  consumption,  and  to  wagon  it  up  can  never 
answer  the  expense. 

"  Major  Carlyle  thinks  the  West  India  market  best,  as 
the  returns  will  be  in  rum,  which  he  can  soon  turn  into 
flour  at  the  camp. 


264  WASHINGTON, 

"  I  am  afraid  I  shall  not  be  able  to  push  things  with 
vigor  this  fall,  for  want  of  a  commissary  who  will  act  with 
spirit.  Mr.  Dick  seems  determined  not  to  enter  into  any 
further  contracts,  unless  he  is  better  supported,  or  till 
he  meets  the  committee  in  October,  by  which  time  the 
best  season  for  engaging  beef  will  be  almost  over.  And 
the  Governor,  by  the  advice  of  Sir  John  St.  Clair,  ex- 
pressed, just  as  I  was  coming  away,  his  desire  of  hav- 
ing him  continued;  so  that  I  am  entirely  ignorant  how 
to  act.  The  making  of  contracts  is  foreign  to  my  duty; 
neither  have  I  time;  and  to  see  the  service  suffer  will 
give  me  infinite  uneasiness,  as  I  would  gladly  conduct 
everything,  as  I  am  capable,  with  life  and  spirit,  which 
never  can  be  done  without  a  fund  of  money  is  lodged  in 
camp  for  defraying  the  contingent  charges.  As  I  believed 
it  difficult  to  get  all  the  clothing  in  any  one  part  of  the 
country,  I  engaged  it  where  I  could,  and  have  got  shoes, 
stockings,  shirts,  and  hats  enough  upon  tolerably  good 
terms,  as  you  may  see  by  the  enclosed. 

''  Major  Carlyle  is  also  willing  to  engage  loo  complete 
suits,  as  good  as  those  imported,  for  £3,  or  less;  which 
I  have  acquainted  the  Governor  of,  and  I  believe  it  to  be 
as  cheap  as  can  be  got  below,  as  it  is  the  making  chiefly 
thsut  occasions  the  difference  between  the  imported  and 
those  provided  here." 

On  the  same  date  as  the  above  Washington  wrote  to 
Governor  Dinwiddle,  that  he  was  afraid  the  recruiting 
would  be  greatly  delayed;  that  at  the  general  muster  in 
the  county  an  attempt  failed ;  and  that  even  a  draft  would 
answer  no  end  under  the  existing  regulations,  which  had 
no  effect  to  keep  men  from  deserting. 

After  despatching  the  business  at  Alexandria,  Wash- 
ington went  on  to  Winchester,  September  14th;  from 
thence  proceeded  to  Fort   Cumberland   and  took  com- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  265 

mand  of  the  troops  there ;  went  on  from  Fort  Cumberland 
to  Fort  Dinwiddle,  on  Jackson's  river,  September  24th; 
and  thence  returned  to  Alexandria,  where  he  arrived  Oc- 
tober 2(1.  Proceeding  thence  he  was  at  Fredericksburg, 
October  5th,  on  his  way  to  Williamsburg,  and  went  for- 
ward on  the  7th.  He  continued  on  to  Colonel  Baylor's 
and  was  there  overtaken  by  an  express  messenger  with 
information  of  a  massacre  of  settlers  by  Indians.  After 
a  letter  to  the  governor,  he  hurried  back  to  Fredericks- 
burg, and  wrote  again  to  Dinwiddle,  as  follows,  October 

8,1755: 

"  I  arrived  at  this  place  in  less  than  three  hours  after  I 
wrote  you  from  Colonel  Baylor's;  and  some  small  time 
after,  arrived  also  Colonel  Stephen,  who  gives  a  worse  ac- 
count than  he  related  in  his  letter ;  but  as  he  is  the  bearer 
of  this,  I  shall  be  less  prolix,  referring  to  him  for 
particulars. 

"  I  shall  set  out  this  evening  for  Winchester,  where  I 
expect  to  be  joined  by  the  recruits  from  Alexandria  and 
this  place,  as  soon  as  they  can  possibly  march  that  dis- 
tance; also,  by  100  men  from  Prince  William  and  Fred- 
erick [counties].  And  I  have  written  to  Fairfax  county, 
desiring  that  a  troop  of  horse  may  hold  themselves  in 
readiness  to  march  at  an  hour's  warning.  So  that  I  doubt 
not,  but  with  the  assistance  of  these,  I  shall  be  able  to 
repulse  the  enemy,  if  they  are  still  committing  their  out- 
rages upon  the  Inhabitants.  We  are  at  a  loss  for  a  want 
of  almost  every  necessary.  Tents,  kettles,  arms,  ammu- 
nition, cartridge-paper,  etc.,  etc.,  we  are  distressed  for. 
Therefore,  I  hope,  as  your  Honor  did  not  send  to  Phila- 
delphia for  them,  you  will,  if  possible,  endeavor  to  get 
them  below,  and  send  them  by  the  first  opportunity  to  this 
place,  or  Alexandria,  with  orders  that  they  may  be  for- 
warded immediately  to  Winchester, 


266  WASHINGTON, 

"  I  must  again  take  the  liberty  of  mentioning  to  your 
Honor  the  necessity  there  is  of  putting  the  miUtia,  when 
they  are  drawn  out  into  actual  service,  under  better  regu- 
lation than  they  are  at  present,  as  well  as  there  is  of  put- 
ting us  under  a  military  law.  Otherwise  we  shall  only  be 
a  burdensome  charge  to  the  country,  and  the  others  will 
prove  its  ruin.  That  this  may  not  appear  an  unmeaning 
expression,  I  shall  refer  your  Honor  to  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Stephen,  who  can  give  you  some  late  proofs  of  their  diso- 
bedience and  inconsistent  behavior. 

'*  I  find  I  cannot  possibly  be  in  Williamsburg,  as  these 
affairs  will  engage  some  time,  till  the  6th,  7th,  or  8th 
of  November,  when  I  should  be  glad  to  meet  a  committee, 
in  order  to  settle  with  them  and  your  Honor  some  points 
that  are  very  necessary  for  the  good  of  the  expedition. 

"  Colonel  Stephen  has  orders  to  receive  some  money 
below  (if  he  can),  that  we  may  be  enabled  to  pay  the 
troops,  and  to  keep  them  in  spirits,  and  to  answer  such 
immediate  charges  as  cannot  be  dispensed  with,  until  I 
come  down.  And  I  should  be  glad  if  your  Honor  would 
order  him  to  repair  therewith  (as  soon  as  he  has  done  his 
business  with  the  committee)  to  Winchester;  and  from 
thence,  with  a  proper  guard  to  Fort  Cumberland.  I  hope 
the  treasury  will  have  a  sufficient  sum  of  money  prepared 
against  I  come  down,  that  I  meet  with  no  great  delay. 

"  I  should  be  glad  your  Honor  would  give  Colonel 
Stephen  all  the  assistance  you  can  in  getting  the  money. 
There  are  about  70  recruits  at  this  place,  and  I  left  25  at 
Alexandria,  which  I  suppose  are  augmented  before  this 
by  officers,  who,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  have  paid  slight  regard 
to  orders,  in  not  being  in  at  the  time  appointed  (Oct.  ist). 
The  most  flagrant  proof  of  this  is  Captain  Harrison,  whom 
I  have  heard  nothing  of,  though  he  had  positive  orders  to 
be  here  at  the  aforesaid  time." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  267 

The  matter  of  securing  Indians  to  fight  Indians,  Indian 
allies  of  the  EngUsh  to  oppose  to  the  murdering  savages 
set  on  against  the  EngHsh  by  the  French,  very  particularly 
engaged  the  attention  of  Washington.  He  wrote  from 
Winchester,  October  lo,  1755,  to  Andrew  Montour,  a  man 
of  note  in  dealings  with  the  Indians  on  the  Ohio,  the  fol- 
lowing letter : 

"  Dear  Montour 

"  I  wrote,  some  time  ago,  a  letter  of  invitation  from 
Fort  Cumberland,  desiring  yourself,  your  family,  and 
friendly  Indians,  to  come  and  reside  among  us,  but  that 
letter  not  coming  to  hand,  I  am  induced  to  send  a  second 
express,  with  the  same  invitation,  being  pleased  that  I 
have  it  in  my  power  to  do  something  for  you  on  a  better 
footing  than  ever  it  has  been  done.  I  was  greatly  en- 
raptured when  I  heard  you  were  at  the  head  of  300  In- 
dians on  a  march  toward  Venango,  being  satisfied  that 
your  hearty  attachment  to  our  glorious  cause,  your  cour- 
age, of  which  I  have  had  very  great  proofs,  and  your 
presence  among  the  Indians,  would  animate  their  just  in- 
dignation to  do  something  noble,  something  worthy  them- 
selves, and  honorable  to  you.  I  hope  you  will  use  your 
interest  (as  I  know  you  have  much)  in  bringing  our 
Brothers  once  more  to  our  service;  assure  them,  as  you 
truly  may,  that  nothing  which  I  can  do  shall  be  wanting 
to  make  them  happy;  assure  them,  also,  that  as  I  have 
the  chief  command,  I  am  invested  with  power  to  treat 
them  as  Brethren  and  Allies,  which,  I  am  sorry  to  say, 
they  have  not  been  of  late.  Recommend  me  kindly  to 
our  good  friend,  Monocatoooha,  and  others;  tell  them 
how  happy  it  would  make  Conotocaurius  to  have  an  op- 
portunity of  taking  them  by  the  hand  at  Fort  Cumber- 
land, and  how  glad  he  would  be  to  treat  them  as  Brothers 
of  our  Great  King  beyond  the  waters.     Flattering  myself 


268  WASHINGTON, 

that  you  will  come,  I  doubt  not  but  you'll  bring  as  many 
of  them  with  you  as  possible,  as  that  will  afford  Me  what 
alone  I  want ;  that  is,  an  opportunity  of  doing  something 
equal  to  your  wishes. 

"  I  am,  Dear  Montour,  your  real  friend  and  assured 
humble  servant. 

"  N.  B.  I  doubt  not  but  you  have  heard  of  the  ravages 
committed  on  our  frontiers  by  the  French  Indians,  and, 
I  suppose,  the  French  themselves.  I  am  now  on  my 
march  against  them,  and  hope  to  give  them  cause  of  re- 
penting of  their  rashness." 

To  another  frontiersman,  Gist,  Washington  gave  instruc- 
tions to  visit  Montour  and  use  his  utmost  influence  with 
him  to  induce  him  to  bring  in  Indians  for  service  against 
the  French  Indians.  To  Gist  he  wrote :  "  I  will  promise 
if  he  brings  many  to  do  something  handsome  for  him. 
You  had  better  be  silent  on  this  head  though,  lest  where 
you  are  measures  may  be  taken  by  the  Pennsylvanians 
to  prevent  him  from  bringing  any  Indians." 

On  Oct.  nth,  Washington  wrote  at  length  on  the  state 
of  things  with  the  people  on  the  frontier  and  in  the 
army  which  he  was  trying  to  get  together  and  to  march 
with  to  the  scene  of  the  disturbances  and  perils.  Thus 
he  said : 

"  Honorable  Sir :  As  I  think  it  my  indispensable  duty 
to  inform  you  particularly  of  my  proceedings,  and  to  give 
the  most  plain  and  authentic  account,  from  time  to  time, 
of  our  situation,  I  must  acquaint  your  Honor  that,  imme- 
diately after  giving  the  necessary  orders  at  Fredericks- 
burg, and  despatching  expresses  to  hurry  the  recruits  from 
Alexandria,  I  rode  post  to  this  place,  passing  by  Lord 
Fairfax's,  who  was  not  at  home,  but  here,  where  I  arrived 
yesterday  about  noon,  and  found  everything  in  the  great- 
^3t  hurry  and  confusion,  by  the  back  inhabitants  flocking 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  369 

in,  and  those  of  the  town  removing  out,  which  I  have 
prevented  as  far  as  it  was  in  my  power.  I  was  desirous 
of  proceeding  immediately,  at  the  head  of  some  militia,  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  ravages  of  the  enemy,  believing  their 
numbers  to  be  few ;  but  was  told  by  Colonel  Martin,  who 
had  attempted  to  raise  the  militia  for  the  same  purpose 
that  it  was  impossible  to  get  above  20  or  25  men,  they 
having  absolutely  refused  to  stir,  choosing,  as  they  say, 
to  die  with  their  wives  and  families. 

"  Finding  this  expedient  likely  to  prove  abortive,  I  sent 
off  expresses  to  hurry  the  recruits  from  below,  and  the 
militia  from  Fairfax,  Prince  William,  etc.,  which  Lord 
Fairfax  had  ordered  out,  and  I  also  hired  spies  to  go  out 
and  see,  to  discover  the  numbers  of  the  enemy,  and  to  en- 
courage the  rangers,  who,  we  were  told,  are  blocked  up  by 
the  Indians  in  small  fortresses.  But,  if  I  may  offer  my 
opinion,  I  believe  thev  are  more  encompassed  by  fear  than 
by  the  enemy. 

"  I  have  also  impressed  wagons  and  sent  them  to  Cono- 
cocheague,  for  flour,  musket-shots,  and  flints,  powder, 
and  trifling  quantity  of  paper,  bought  at  extravagant 
prices,  for  cartridges.  I  expect  from  below  six  or  eight 
smiths  who  are  now  at  work,  repairing  the  firearms  that 
are  here,  which  are  all  that  we  have  to  depend  on.  A 
man  was  hired,  the  24th  of  last  month,  to  do  the  whole, 
but  neglected  and  was  just  moving  off  in  wagons  to  Penn- 
sylvania. I  impressed  his  wagons  and  compelled  him  by 
force  to  assist  in  this  work.  In  all  things  I  meet  with 
the  greatest  opposition.  No  orders  are  obeyed,  but  what 
a  party  of  soldiers,  or  my  own  drawn  sword,  enforces; 
without  this  a  single  horse,  for  the  most  urgent  occa- 
sion, cannot  be  had,  to  such  a  pitch  has  the  insolence  of 
these  people  arrived,  by  having  every  point  hitherto  sub- 
mitted to  them.     However,  I  have  given  up  none,  where 


270  WASHINGTON. 

his  Majesty's  service  requires  the  contrary,  and  where  my 
proceedings  are  justified  by  my  instructions;  nor  will  I  do 
it,  unless  they  execute  what  they  threaten,  i.  e.,  'to  blow 
out  my  brains.' 

"  I  have  invited  the  poor  distressed  people  (driven  from 
their  habitations)  to  lodge  their  families  in  some  place  of 
security,  and  to  join  our  parties  in  scouring  the  woods 
where  the  enemy  lie,  and  believe  some  will  cheerfully  as- 
sist. I  also  have  taken  and  shall  continue  to  take  every 
previous  step  to  forward  the  march  of  the  recruits,  etc., 
so  soon  as  they  arrive  here,  and  your  Honor  may  depend 
that  nothing  that  is  in  my  power  to  do  shall  be  wanting 
for  the  good  of  the  service. 

"  I  would  again  hint  the  necessity  of  putting  the  militia 
under  a  better  regulation,  had  I  not  mentioned  it  twice 
before,  and  a  third  time  may  seem  impertinent ;  but  I  must 
once  more  beg  leave  to  declare,  (for  here  I  am  more  im- 
mediately concerned,)  that,  unless  the  Assembly  will  enact 
a  law  to  enforce  the  military  law  in  all  its  parts,  that  I 
m^ist,  with  great  regret,  decline  the  honor  that  has  been 
so  generously  intended  me,  and  for  this  only  reason  I 
do  it  —  the  foreknowledge  I  have  of  failing  in  every  point 
that  might  justly  be  expected  from  a  person  invested  with 
full  power  to  exert  this  authority.  I  see  the  growing  in- 
solence of  the  soldiers,  the  indolence  and  inactivity  of  the 
officers,  who  are  all  sensible  how  confined  their  punish- 
ments are,  in  regard  to  what  they  ought  to  be.  In  fine, 
I  can  plainly  see,  that  under  our  present  establishment  we 
shall  become  a  nuisance,  an  insupportable  charge  to  our 
country,  and  never  answer  any  one  expectation  of  the 
Assembly. 

"  And  here  I  must  assume  the  freedom  to  express  some 
surprise,  that  we  alone  should  be  so  tenacious  of  our  lib- 
erty as  not  to  invest  a  power  where  interest  and  politics 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  271 

so  unanswerably  demand  it,  and  from  whence  so  much 
good  must  consequently  ensue.  Do  we  not  see  that  every 
nation  under  the  sun  find  their  account  therein,  and  with- 
out it  no  order,  no  regularity  can  be  observed?  Why 
then  should  it  be  expected  from  us,  (who  are  all  young 
and  inexperienced,)  to  govern  and  keep  up  a  proper  spirit 
of  discipline  without  laws,  when  the  best  and  most  expe- 
rienced can  scarcely  do  it  with  them  ?  Then  if  we  consult 
our  interest,  I  am  sure  it  is  loudly  called  for;  for  I  can 
confidently  assert,  that  money  expended  in  recruiting, 
clothing,  arming,  maintaining,  and  subsisting  soldiers, 
who  have  deserted,  has  cost  the  country  an  immense  sum, 
which  might  have  been  prevented,  were  we  under  restraints 
that  would  terrify  the  soldiers  from  such  practices. 

"  One  thing  more  on  this  head  I  will  recommend,  and 
then  quit  the  subject;  i.  e.  to  have  the  inhabitants  liable 
to  certain  heavy  fines,  or  corporal  punishments,  for  en- 
tertaining of  deserters,  and  a  reward  for  taking  them  up. 
If  this  was  done  it  would  be  next  to  an  impossibility  for 
a  soldier  to  escape;  but,  on  the  contrary,  as  things  now 
stand,  they  are  not  only  seduced  to  run  away,  but  are 
also  harbored,  and  assisted  with  every  necessary  means 
to  do  it. 

"  Sunday  Noon. —  Last  night  arrived  an  express,  just 
spent  with  fatigue  and  fear,  reporting  that  a  party  of  In- 
dians were  about  12  miles  oflf,  at  the  plantation  of  one 
Isaac  Julian,  and  that  the  inhabitants  were  flying  in  the 
most  promiscuous  manner  from  their  dwellings.  I  imme- 
diately ordered  the  town  guards  to  be  strengthened ;  Per- 
kins's lieutenant  to  be  in  readiness  with  his  companies; 
some  recruits,  who  had  only  arrived  about  half  an  hour 
before,  to  be  armed;  and  sent  two  men,  well  acquainted 
with  the  roads,  to  go  up  that  road  and  lay  in  wait,  to  see 
if  they  could  discover  the  number  and  motion  of  the  In- 


27^  WASHINGTON. 

dians,  that  we  might  have  timely  notice  of  their  approach. 
This  morning,  before  we  could  parade  the  men,  to  march 
upon  the  last  alarm,  arrived  a  second  express,  ten  times 
more  terrified  than  the  former,  with  information  that  the 
Indians  had  got  within  four  miles  of  the  town,  and  were 
killing  and  destroying  all  before  them,  for  that  he  himself 
had  heard  constant  firing  and  shrieks  of  the  unhappy  mur- 
dered. Upon  this  I  immediately  collected  what  force  I 
could,  which  consisted  of  22  men  recruited  for  the  rangers 
and  19  of  the  militia,  and  marched  directly  to  the  place 
where  these  horrid  murders  were  said  to  be  committed. 
When  we  came  there,  whom  should  we  find  occasioning 
all  this  disturbance  but  three  drunken  soldiers  of  the  light- 
horse,  carousing,  firing  their  pistols,  and  uttering  the  most 
unheard  of  imprecations!  These  we  took  and  marched 
prisoners  to  town  [Winchester],  where  we  met  the  men 
I  sent  out  last  night,  and  learned  that  the  party  of  Indians, 
discovered  by  Isaac  JuHan,  proved  to  be  a  mulatto  and 
negro,  seen  hunting  of  cattle  by  his  child,  who  alarmed 
the  father,  and  the  father  the  neighborhood.  These  cir- 
cumstances are  related  only  to  show  what  a  panic  prevails 
among  the  people;  how  much  they  are  alarmed  at  the 
most  usual  and  customary  cries ;  and  yet  how  impossible 
it  is  to  get  them  to  act  in  any  respect  for  their  common 
safety.  As  an  instance  of  this  —  Colonel  Fairfax,  who  ar- 
rived in  town  when  we  were  upon  a  scout,  immediately 
sent  to  a  noble  captain,  not  far  oflf,  to  repair  with  his  com- 
pany forthwith  to  Winchester.  With  coolness  and  mode- 
ration this  great  captain  answered  that  his  wife,  family, 
and  corn  were  all  at  stake;  so  were  his  soldiers;  there- 
fore it  was  impossible  for  him  to  come.  Such  is  the  ex- 
ample of  the  officers ;  such  the  behavior  of  the  men ;  and 
upon  such  circumstances  depends  the  safety  of  our 
country !  '* 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  273 

The  date  of  the  continuance  of  this  communication  the 
next  day  shows  that  Washington  began  it  Sunday  morn- 
ing, and  went  on  with  it  Sunday  noon.  He  went  on 
further  the  next  morning  as  follows: 

"  Monday  morning,  12th  —  The  men  I  hired  to  bring 
intelligence  from  the  Branch  returned  last  night,  with  let- 
ters from  Captain  Ashby,  and  the  other  parties  there;  by 
which  I  learn  that  the  Indians  are  gone  off ;  scouts  having 
been  dispersed  upon  those  waters  for  several  days,  with- 
out discovering  tracks  or  other  signs  of  the  enemy. 

"  I  am  also  informed  that  it  is  believed  their  numbers 
amounted  to  about  150;  that  70  of  our  men  are  killed  and 
missing,  and  that  several  houses  and  plantations  are  de- 
stroyed, but  not  so  great  havoc  made  as  was  represented 
at  first.  The  rangers,  and  a  small  company  of  militia,  or- 
dered there  by  Lord  Fairfax,  I  am  given  to  understand, 
intend  to  march  down  on  Monday  next,  who  will  be  imme- 
diately followed  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  those  parts,  that 
had  gathered  together  under  their  protection.  I  have, 
therefore,  sent  peremptory  orders  to  the  contrary,  but 
what  obedience  will  be  paid  to  them  a  little  time  will  re- 
veal. I  have  ordered  those  men,  that  were  recruited  for 
the  rangers,  to  join  their  respective  companies.  And  there 
is  also  a  party  of  militia  marched  with  them  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Harden.  Captain  Waggener  is  this 
instant  arrived  with  30  recruits,  which  he  marched  from 
Bellhaven  in  less  than  three  days  —  a  great  march  indeed ! 
Major  Lewis  and  his  recruits  from  Fredericksburg  I  ex- 
pect in  tomorrow,  when,  with  these  and  22  of  Captain 
Bell's  now  here,  I  shall  proceed  by  quick  marches  to  Fort 
Cumberland,  in  order  to  strengthen  that  garrison.  Be- 
sides these,  I  think  it  absolutely  necessary  that  there  should 
be  two  or  three  companies  (exclusively)  of  rangers,  to 
guard  the  Potomac  waters  until  such  time  as  our  regiment 
18 


274  WASHINGTON. 

is  completed.  And,  indeed,  these  rangers  and  volunteer 
companies  in  Augusta  (county)  with  some  of  their  militia, 
should  be  properly  disposed  of  on  these  frontiers,  for 
fear  of  an  attack  from  that  quarter.  This  though  is  sub- 
mitted to  your  honor's  judgment,  and  waits  your  orders 
for  execution  if  thought  expedient. 

"  Captain  Waggener  informs  me,  that  it  was  with  diffi- 
culty he  passed  the  Ridge  for  the  crowds  of  people  who 
were  flying  as  if  every  moment  was  death.  He  endeavored, 
but  in  vain,  to  stop  them ;  they  firmly  believing  that  Win- 
chester was  in  flames.  I  shall  send  expresses  down  the 
several  roads  in  hopes  of  bringing  back  the  inhabitants, 
who  are  really  frightened  out  of  their  senses.  I  despatched 
an  express  immediately  upon  my  arrival  at  this  place,  with 
a  copy  of  the  enclosed  to  Andrew  Montour,  who  I  heard 
was  at  a  place  called  Long  Island  with  300  Indians,  to 
see  if  he  could  engage  him  and  them  to  join  us.  The 
letter  savors  a  little  of  flattery,  etc.,  etc.,  but  this,  I  hope, 
is  justifiable  on  such  occasions.  I  also  wrote  to  Gist,  ac- 
quainting him  with  the  favor  you  intended  him,  and  de- 
sired he  would  repair  home  in  order  to  raise  his  com- 
panies of  scouts  (he  having  been  commissioned  Captain 
of  a  company  of  scouts). 

"I  shall  defer  writing  to  the  Speaker  and  Committee 
upon  any  other  head  than  that  of  commissary,  still  hoping 
to  be  down  by  the  time  mentioned  in  my  last  (provided 
no  new  disturbances  happen,)  having  some  points  to  set- 
tle that  I  am  uneasy  and  urgent  about.  I  have  been 
obliged  to  do  duty  very  foreign  to  my  own ;  but  that  I 
shall  never  hesitate  about,  when  the  good  of  the  service 
requires  it. 

"  In  a  journey  from  Fort  Cumberland  to  Fort  Dinwiddle, 
which  I  made  purposely  to  see  the  situation  of  our  fron- 
tiers, how  the  rangers  were  posted  and  how  troops  might 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  '275 

be  disposed  of  for  the  defense  of  the  country,  I  purchased 
650  beeves,  to  be  delivered  at  Fort  Cumberland  by  the 
1st  of  November,  at  10  shillings  per  hundred  weight,  ex- 
cept a  few  that  I  was  obliged  to  give  eleven  shillings  for ; 
and  have  my  own  bonds  now  out  for  the  performance  of 
covenants,  this  being  the  commissary's  business,  who,  I 
am  sorry  to  say,  has  hitherto  been  of  no  use,  but  of  dis- 
service to  me,  in  neglecting  my  orders,  and  leaving  this 
place  without  flour,  and  Fredericksburg  without  any  pro- 
visions for  the  recruits,  although  he  had  timely  notice 
given.  I  must  beg  that,  if  Mr.  Dick  will  not  act,  some 
other  person  may  be  appointed  that  will;  for,  if  things 
remain  in  this  uncertain  situation,  the  season  will  pass 
without  having  provision  made  for  the  winter,  or  sum- 
mer's campaign.  Whoever  acts  as  commissary  should  be 
sent  up  immediately  about  salting  the  provisions,  etc.  It 
will  be  difficult,  I  beheve,  to  provide  a  quantity  of  pork. 
I  enquired  as  I  rode  through  Hampshire,  Augusta,  etc., 
and  could  not  hear  of  much  for  sale. 

''  Most  of  the  new  appointed  officers  have  been  ex- 
tremely deficient  in  their  duties  by  not  repairing  to  their 
rendezvous  according  to  appointment.  Capt.  McKenzie, 
Lieut.  King  and  Ensigns  Miller  and  Dean,  who  were  or- 
dered to  send  their  recruits  to  Alexandria  by  the  first  of 
October,  were  not  arrived  when  Capt.  Waggener  left  that 
place,  nor  have  we  heard  anything  of  Capt.  Harrison, 
whose  recruits  should  have  been  at  Fredericksburg  by 
the  same  time ;  and  Capt.  Bell  only  sent  his  here  on  Sat- 
urday last.  If  these  practises  are  allowed  of,  we  may  as 
well  quit  altogether,  for  no  duty  can  ever  be  carried  on 
if  there  is  not  the  greatest  punctuality  observed,  one  thing 
always  depending  so  immediately  upon  another. 

"  I  have  appointed  Capt.  George  Mercer  (whose  se- 
niority entitled  him  to  it)  my  aide-de-camp ;  and  Mr.  Kirk- 


276  WASHINGTON. 

Patrick  of  Alexandria,  my  secretary,  a  young  man  bred 
to  business,  of  good  character,  well  recommended,  and 
a  person  of  whose  abilities  I  had  not  the  least  doubt. 

"  I  hope  your  Honor  will  be  kind  enough  to  despatch 
Colonel  Stephen,  with  orders  to  repair  hither  immediately, 
and  excuse  the  prolixity  of  this.  I  was  wiUing  to  give 
a  circumstantial  account  of  our  situation,  that  you  may 
be  the  better  enabled  to  judge  what  orders  are  necessary 
to  give." 

"Winchester,  Oct.  13,  1755:  Major  Lewis  is  just  ar- 
rived, and  on  Thursday  I  shall  begin  my  march  to  Fort 
Cumberland,  allowing  the  recruits  one  day  to  refresh 
themselves." 

Either  the  same  day  or  the  next  Washington  issued  the 
following  "  Advertisement "  to  warn  people  not  to  give 
way  to  panic  fear  so  far  as  to  forsake  their  homes  and 
leave  their  plantations  to  go  to  ruin: 

"  Advertisement. —  Whereas  divers  timorous  persons 
run  through  the  country  and  alarm  its  inhabitants  by  false 
reports  of  the  Indians  having  attacked  and  destroyed  the 
country  —  even  Winchester  itself,  and  that  they  are  still 
proceeding: 

"  This  is  to  give  notice  to  all  people,  that  I  have  great 
reason  to  believe  that  the  Indians  who  committed  the  late 
cruelties  (though  no  lower  than  the  South  Branch)  are  re- 
turned home,  as  I  have  certain  accounts  that  they  have 
not  been  seen  nor  heard  of  these  ten  days  past.  And  I 
do  advise  all  my  countrymen  not  to  be  alarmed  on  every 
false  report  they  may  hear,  as  they  must  now  be  satisfied, 
from  the  many  false  ones  that  have  been  made;  but  to 
keep  to  their  homes,  and  take  care  of  their  crops,  as  I 
can  ventured  to  assure  them  that  in  a  short  time  the  fron- 
tiers will  be  so  well  guarded  that  no  mischief  can  be  done, 
either  to  them  or  their  plantations,  which  must  of  course 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  277 

be  destroyed,  if  they  desert  them  in  so  shameful  a 
mamier/' 

The  views  of  Washington  in  regard  to  maintenance  of 
a  good  hold  upon  Indians  not  engaged  by  the  French, 
he  expressed  in  a  letter  of  October  17,  1755,  to  Governor 
Dinwiddle : 

"  Last  night  by  the  return  of  the  express,  who  went 
to  Capt.  Montour,  I  received  the  enclosed  from  Mr.  Har- 
ris at  Susquehanna.  I  think  no  means  should  be  neg- 
lected to  preserve  what  few  Indians  still  remain  in  our 
interest.  For  which  reason  I  shall  send  Mr.  Gist,  as  soon 
as  he  arrives  (which  I  expect  will  be  to-day),  to  Harris's 
Ferry,  in  hopes  of  engaging  and  bringing  with  him  the 
Belt  of  Wampum  and  other  Indians  that  are  at  that  place. 
I  shall  further  desire  him  to  send  an  Indian  express  to 
Andrew  Montour,  to  try  if  he  cannot  be  brought  with 
them. 

"  In  however  trifling  a  light  the  French  attempting  to 
alienate  the  affections  of  our  southern  Indians  may  at 
first  appear,  I  must  look  upon  it  as  a  thing  of  the  utmost 
consequence,  that  requires  our  greatest  and  most  immedi- 
ate attention.  I  have  often  wondered  at  not  hearing  this 
was  attempted  before,  and  had  it  noted  among  other  memo- 
randums to  acquaint  your  Honor  with  when  I  should  come 
down. 

"  The  French  policy  in  treating  with  the  Indians  is  so 
prevalent,  that  I  should  not  be  in  the  least  surprised,  were 
they  to  engage  the  Cherokees,  Catawbas,  etc.,  unless 
timely  and  vigorous  measures  are  taken  to  prevent  it.  A 
pusillanimous  behavior  now  will  ill  suit  the  times ;  and  trust- 
ing to  traders  and  common  interpreters,  who  will  sell  their 
integrity  to  the  highest  bidder,  may  prove  the  destruction 
of  these  aflfairs.  I  therefore  think  that  if  a  person  ol  dis- 
tinction, acquainted  with  their  language  is  to  be  found, 


278  WASHINGTON. 

his  price  should  be  come  to  at  any  rate.  If  no  such  person 
can  be  had,  a  man  of  sense  and  character,  to  conduct  the 
Indians  to  any  council  that  may  be  held,  or  superintend 
any  other  matters  will  be  found  extremely  necessary.  It 
is  impertinent,  I  own,  in  me  to  offer  my  opinion  in  these 
affairs,  when  better  judges  may  direct;  but  my  steady  and 
hearty  zeal  for  the  cause,  and  the  great  impositions  I 
have  known  practised  by  the  traders,  etc.,  upon  these 
occasions  would  not  suffer  me  to  be  quite  silent.  I  have 
heard  from  undoubted  authority,  that  some  of  the  Chero- 
kees,  who  have  been  introduced  to  us  as  Sachems  and 
Princes  by  this  interpreter,  who  shares  the  profits,  have 
been  no  other  than  common  hunters,  and  bloodthirsty 
villains. 

"We  have  no  accounts  yet  of  the  militia  from  Fairfax, 
etc.  This  day  I  marched  with  about  one  hundred  men  to 
Fort  Cumberland.  Yesterday  an  express  informed  me  of 
eighty  odd.  recruits  at  Fredericksburg,  which  I  have 
ordered  to  proceed  to  this  place;  but,  for  want  of  that 
regularity  being  observed  by  which  I  should  know  where 
every  officer,  etc.,  is,  my  orders  are  only  conditional,  and 
always  confused.  The  commissary  is  much  wanted ;  there- 
fore I  hope  your  Honor  will  send  him  up  immediately;  if 
not,  things  will  greatly  suffer  here.  Whatever  necessaries 
your  Honor  gets  below  I  should  be  glad  to  have  sent  to 
Alexandria;  from  whence  they  are  much  more  handy  than 
from  Fredericksburg.  Besides,  as  provision  is  lodged  there, 
and  none  at  any  other  place,  it  will  be  better  for  the  men, 
to  be  all  sent  there  that  can  anyways  conveniently.  For 
we  have  met  with  insufferable  difficulties  at  Fredericksburg, 
and  in  our  march  from  thence,  through  neglect  of  the 
commissary,  who  is  greatly  wanted  up  here.  Therefore, 
I  hope  your  Honor  will  order  him." 

After  the  journey  to  Fort  Cumberland,  and  returning 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  279 

from  Williamsburg  to  headquarters  at  Winchester,  Wash- 
ington was  at  Fredericksburg,  and  there  wrote,  Novem- 
ber i8,  1755,  to  Lieut.-Col.  Adam  Stephen: 

"  I  came  to  this  place  on  Sunday  last,  and  intended  to 
proceed  immediately  up ;  but  receiving  yours  and  other 
letters  contradicting  the  reports  lately  transmitted,  deter- 
mined me  to  go  to  Alexandria,  where  I  shall  wait  a  few 
days,  hoping  to  meet  the  express  from  General  Shirley,  to 
whom  the  Governor  sent  for  commissions  for  the  field 
officers. 

**  I  beg  that  you  will  be  particularly  careful  in  seeing 
strict  order  observed  among  the  soldiers,  as  that  is  the 
life  of  military  discipline.  We  now  have  it  in  our  power 
to  enforce  obedience  [through  a  military  law  recently 
passed  by  the  Assembly  of  the  colony] ;  and  obedience  will 
be  expected  from  us,  the  men  being  subject  to  death  as 
in  military  law.  The  Assembly  have  also  oflfered  a  reward 
to  all  who  will  apprehend  deserters,  and  a  severe  punish- 
ment upon  those  who  shall  entertain  or  suffer  them  to  pass ; 
also  upon  any  constable  who  refuses  to  convey  them  to 
the  company  or  troop  to  which  they  belong,  or  shall  suffer 
them  to  escape  after  such  deserters  are  committed  to  his 
custody. 

"  These  things,  with  the  articles  of  war  and  a  proper 
exhortation,  I  would  have  you  read  immediately  to  the 
men,  and  see  that  it  is  frequently  done  hereafter.  I  must 
desire  that  you  will  use  all  possible  means  to  facilitate  the 
salting  our  provisions,  and  give  the  commissary  such  as- 
sistance of  men,  etc.,  as  he  shall  reasonably  require.  The 
Governor  approves  of  the  committee's  resolve,  in  not  al- 
lowing either  the  Maryland  or  Carolina  companies  to  be 
supported  out  of  our  provisions.  This  you  are  to  make 
them  acquainted  with,  and,  in  case  any  of  the  compa- 
nies should  be  discharged  to  use  your  utmost  endeavors 


28§  WASHINGTON. 

to  enlist  as  man}^  of  the  men  as  you  can.  Lieutenant  Mc- 
Manners  has  leave  to  go  to  Carolina  if  he  desires  it.  The 
Assembly  would  make  no  alteration  in  our  militia  law; 
nor  would  the  Governor  order  them  to  be  drafted  to  com- 
plete our  regiment,  so  that  the  slow  method  of  recruiting 
is  likely  to  be  our  only  means  to  raise  the  men.  I  think, 
could  a  brisk  officer,  and  two  or  three  sergeants,  be 
sent  among  the  militia  stationed  on  the  South  Branch, 
they  would  have  a  probable  chance  of  engaging  many,  as 
some  were  inclinable  in  Winchester  to  list.  Doctor  Craik 
is  expected  round  to  Alexandria  in  a  vessel,  with  medicines 
and  other  stores  for  the  regiment.  So  soon  as  he  arrives, 
I  shall  take  care  to  despatch  him  to  you. 

"The  Colonels  Byrd  and  Randolph  [members  of  the 
Governor's  Council  and  gentlemen  of  distinction]  are  ap- 
pointed commissioners  [to  visit  and  conciliate  the  south- 
ern Indians],  and  will  set  out  very  shortly,  with  a  present, 
etc.,  to  the  country  of  the  Cherokees,  in  order  to  engage 
them  to  our  interest." 

To  the  same  officer  Washington  wrote  again  November 
28,  1755,  from  Alexandria: 

"  I  received  your  two  letters  by  Jenkins  last  night,  and 
was  greatly  surprised  to  hear  that  Commissary  Walker 
was  not  arrived  at  camp  when  he  came  away.  He  set 
out  from  Williamsburg  about  the  12th  instant,  with  orders 
to  proceed  immediately  up;  but  such  disobedience  of 
commands,  as  I  have  generally  met  with,  is  insufferable, 
and  shall  not  go  unpunished.  The  account  you  enclosed 
of  the  method  of  receiving  the  beef,  I  suppose  is  custom- 
ary; but  for  want  of  judgment  in  those  affairs,  I  can 
neither  applaud  nor  condemn  it.  I  am  as  much  astonished 
as  you  were  surprised  at  the  quantity  of  salt  said  to  be 
wanted  for  the  provision,  but  certain  it  is,  that  if  it,  or  a 
greater  quantity,  is  necessary,  it  must  be  had.     I  have 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  281 

left  a  discretionary  power  in  Commissary  Walker  to  kill 
or  winter  the  Carolina  beeves  as  the  interest  of  the  ser- 
vice requires.  Pray  assist  him  with  your  advice,  and  urge 
him  on  to  make  the  necessary  purchases  of  flour  and  pork 
m  time. 

"  The  Governor  did  not  seem  inclinable  to  promote  the 
removal  of  the  fort;  however,  the  Committee  have  lodged 
a  discretionary  power  in  my  hands,  and  have  resolved  to 
pay  for  all  extraordinary  labor.  I  would,  therefore,  have 
as  little  labor  lost  at  Fort  Cumberland  as  possible;  at 
least  until  I  come  up,  which  will  be  very  shortly,  my  stay 
here  being  only  for  a  few  days,  in  order  to  receive  re- 
cruits, and  hurry  up  the  stores  to  Winchester. 

"  I  believe  those  who  say  Governor  Sharpe  [of  Mary- 
land] is  to  command,  can  only  wish  it.  I  do  not  know 
that  Governor  Shirley  [at  Boston,  in  chief  command  for 
the  King's  regular  troops  in  America]  has  a  power  to  ap- 
point a  chief  to  our  forces, —  to  regulars  he  may.  As  to 
that  affair  of  turning  the  storehouse  into  a  dwelling-room, 
I  do  not  know  what  better  answer  to  give  than  saying 
that  this  is  one  among  the  many  instances  that  might 
be  offered  of  the  inconvenience  of  having  a  fort  in  Mary- 
land. As  soon  as  I  hear  from  Gov.  Shirley,  which  is 
hourly  expected,  I  can  give  a  more  determined  answer. 

"  There  has  been  such  total  negligence  among  the  re- 
cruiting officers  in  general,  such  disregard  of  the  service 
they  were  employed  in,  and  such  idle  proceedings,  that  I 
am  determined  to  send  out  none  until  we  all  meet,  when 
each  officer  shall  have  his  own  men,  and  have  only  this 
alternative,  either  to  complete  his  number  or  lose  his  com- 
mission. There  are  several  officers  who  have  been  out 
six  weeks,  or  two  months,  without  getting  a  man,  spend- 
ing their  time  in  all  the  gayety  of  pleasurable  mirth,  with 
their  relations  and  friends;  not  attempting,  nor  having  a 


"282  WASHINGTON. 

possible  chance  of  recruiting  any  but  those  who,  out  of 
their  incHnation  to  the  service,  will  proffer  themselves. 

"  I  should  be  glad  to  have  ten  or  twelve  wagons  sent 
to  this  place,  for  salt  enough  may  be  had  here  to  load 
that  number,  and  it  comes  upon  easier  terms  than  at 
Fredericksburg,  by  sixpence  or  eightpence  per  bushel. 
Those  stores  at  Watkins  Ferry  should  be  hurried  up  as 
fast  as  the  water  affords  opportunities,  if  it  were  only  to 
prevent  disputes. 

"  If  the  paymaster  is  at  Winchester,  and  not  on  his  way 
to  Fort  Dinwiddie,  order  him  down  here  immediately.  If 
he  should  be  going  with  pay  to  Captain  Hogg  [whose 
unpaid  men  had  mutinied] ,  he  is  to  proceed  with  despatch ;' 
but  if  he  is  at  Fort  Cumberland,  order  him  down  to  Win- 
chester, to  wait  there  until  I  arrive." 

December  5,  1755,  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Din- 
widdie from  Alexandria : 

"  I  have  sent  the  bearer.  Captain  John  Mercer  (who  has 
accounts  to  settle  with  the  Committee),  to  the  Treasurer 
for  the  balance  of  that  £10,000;  and  to  acquaint  your 
Honor,  that,  meeting  with  letters  at  Fredericksburg,  in- 
forming me  that  all  was  peaceable  above,  and  that  noth- 
ing was  so  immediately  wanting  as  salt,  I  got  what  I  could 
at  that  place,  and  hastened  on  here  to  engage  more,  to 
receive  the  recruits  expected  in,  and  to  wait  the  arrival  of 
the  vessel  with  arms,  etc.,  from  James  River,  in  order  to 
forward  them  up  with  the  greater  despatch.  The  vessel 
is  not  yet  arrived. 

"  I  have  impatiently  expected  to  hear  the  result  of  your 
Honor's  letter  to  Governor  Shirley,  and  wish  that  the 
delays  may  not  prove  ominous.  In  that  case,  I  shall  not 
know  how  to  act ;  for  I  can  never  submit  to  the  command 
of  Captain  Dagworthy,  since  you  have  honored  me  with 
the  command  of  the  Virginia  regiment,  etc. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  '283 

"  The  country  has  sustained  inconceivable  losses,  by  de- 
laying the  commissaries  at  Williamsburg.  Many  of  the 
beeves  are  dead,  through  absolute  poverty,  and  the  chief 
part  of  them  too  poor  to  slaughter.  We  are  at  a  loss  how 
to  act,  for  want  of  the  mutiny  bill ;  and  should  be  obliged 
to  your  Honor,  if  you  will  have  fifty  or  a  hundred  printed, 
and  sent  by  the  bearer.  There  is  a  clause  in  that  bill, 
which,  if  you  are  not  kind  enough  to  obviate  it,  will  pre- 
vent entirely  the  good  intention  of  it,  that  is,  delaying  the 
execution  of  sentences,  until  your  Honor  shall  be  made 
acquainted  with  the  proceedings  of  the  court.  This,  at 
times  when  there  is  the  greatest  occasion  for  examples, 
will  be  morally  impossible;  I  mean,  when  we  are  on  our 
march,  perhaps  near  the  Ohio,  when  none  but  strong  par- 
ties can  pass  with  safety.  At  all  times  it  must  be  attended 
with  great  expense,  trouble,  and  inconveniency.  This  I 
represented  to  Col.  Corbin,  and  some  other  gentlemen  of 
the  Council,  when  I  was  down,  who  said  that  the  objec- 
tion would  be  removed,  by  your  Honor's  giving  blank 
warrants,  to  be  filled  up  as  occasion  should  require.  This 
would  effectually  remedy  all  those  evils,  and  put  things 
in  their  proper  channel. 

"  We  suffer  greatly  for  want  of  kettles ;  those  sent  from 
below,  being  tin,  are  of  short  duration.  We  shall  also,  in 
a  little  time,  suffer  as  much  for  the  want  of  clothing;  none 
can  be  got  in  these  parts ;  those  which  Major  Carlyle  and 
Dalton  contracted  to  furnish  we  are  disappointed  of. 
Shoes  and  stockings  we  have,  and  can  get  more  if  wanted, 
but  nothing  else.  I  should  be  glad  your  Honor  would 
direct  what  is  to  be  done  in  these  cases;  and  that  you 
would  be  kind  enough  to  desire  the  treasurer  to  send  some 
part  of  the  money  in  gold  and  silver.  Were  this  done  we 
might  often  get  necessaries  for  the  regiment  in  Maryland, 


284  •       WASHINGTON. 

or  Pennsylvania,  when  they  cannot  be  had  here.  But  with 
our  money  it  is  impossible ;  our  paper  not  passing  there. 

''  The  recruiting  service  goes  on  extremely  slow.  Yes- 
terday being  a  day  appointed  for  rendezvousing  at  this 
place,  there  came  in  ten  officers  with  twenty  men  only.  If 
I  had  any  other  than  paper  money,  and  you  approved  of 
it,  I  would  send  to  Pennsylvania  and  the  borders  of  Caro- 
lina. I  am  confident  men  might  be  had  there.  Your 
Honor  never  having  given  any  particular  directions  about 
the  provisions,  I  should  be  glad  to  know,  whether  you 
would  have  more  laid  in  than  what  will  serve  for  1200  men, 
that  I  may  give  orders  accordingly. 

*'As  I  cannot  now  conceive  that  any  great  danger  can 
be  apprehended  at  Fort  Cumberland  this  winter,  I  am  sensi- 
ble that  my  constant  attendance  there  cannot  be  so  ser- 
viceable as  riding  from  place  to  place,  making  the  proper 
dispositions,  and  seeing  that  all  our  necessaries  are  for- 
warded up  with  despatch.  I  therefore  think  it  advisable 
to  inform  your  Honor  of  it,  hoping  it  will  correspond  with 
your  own  opinion. 

"  I  forgot  to  mention  when  I  was  down,  that  Mr.  Living- 
ston, the  Fort  Major,  was  appointed  adjutant  to  our  regi- 
ment. I  know  of  none  else  whose  long  servitude  in  a 
military  way  had  better  qualified  for  the  office.  He  was 
appointed  the  17th  of  September. 

"  Captain  Mercer's  pay  as  aid-de-camp  seems  yet  doubt- 
ful. I  should  be  glad  if  your  Honor  would  fix  it ;  as  so 
is  Captain  Stewart's.  If  Captain  Stewart's  is  increased, 
I  suppose  all  the  officers  belonging  to  the  light-horse  will 
expect  to  have  theirs  augmented  also.  Colonel  Stephen, 
in  a  late  letter,  discovered  an  inclination  to  go  to  the  Creek 
and  Cherokee  Indians  this  winter.  I  told  him  where  to 
apply,  if  he  had  any  such  thoughts.  I  believe,  on  so  useful 
a  business,  he  might  be  spared  until  the  spring.    If  your 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  285 

Honor  think  proper  to  order  the  Act  of  Assembly  for 
apprehending  deserters,  and  against  harboring  them,  to  be 
published  every  Sunday  in  each  parish  church,  until  the 
people  are  made  acquainted  with  the  law,  it  would  have 
a  very  good  effect.  The  commonalty  in  general  err  more 
through  ignorance  than  design.  Few  of  them  are  acquainted 
that  such  a  law  exists,  and  there  is  no  other  certain  way 
of  bringing  it  to  their  knowledge.  There  are  a  great  many 
of  the  men  that  did  once  belong  to  our  companies,  de- 
serted from  the  regiments  into  which  they  were  drafted, 
that  would  now  gladly  return,  if  they  could  be  sure  of 
indemnity.  If  your  Honor  would  be  kind  enough  to  in- 
timate this  to  General  Shirley,  or  the  colonels  of  those 
regiments,  it  would  be  of  service  to  us.  Without  leave, 
we  dare  not  receive  them." 

December  28,  1755,  Washington  wrote  from  Winchester 
to  Lieut.-Col.  Adam  Stephen : 

"  Captain  John  Mercer  only  returned  last  night  from 
Williamsburg,  and  brings  no  satisfactory  answers  to  any- 
thing I  questioned  the  Governor  upon. 

"  The  express,  that  was  sent  to  General  Shirley,  is  re- 
turned without  seeing  him ;  however,  the  Governor  writes 
that  he  expects  answers  to  his  letters  by  Colonel  Hunter, 
who  is  now  at  New  York,  and  waits  the  arrival  of  the 
General  at  that  place.  The  Governor  is  very  strongly  of 
the  opinion,  that  Captain  Dagworthy  has  no  right  to  con- 
tend for  the  command ;  and  in  his  letter  he  says,  after  men- 
tioning the  return  of  the  express,  and  his  expectancy  of 
satisfactory  letters,  *  But  I  am  of  opinion  you  might  have 
obviated  the  inconsistent  dispute  with  Captain  Dag- 
worthy, by  asking  him  if  he  did  not  command  a  provincial 
company  by  virtue  of  Governor  Sharpe's  commission;  as 
that  he  had  formerly  from  his  Majesty  now  ceases,  as  he  is 
not  on  the  half-pay  list ;  if  so,  the  method  you  are  to  take 


286  WASHINGTON. 

is  very  obvious,  as  your  commission  from  me  is  greater 
than  what  he  has.'  And  in  WilHamsburg,  when  I  was 
down  there,  both  he  and  Colonel  Fitzhugh  told  me,  that 
Dagworthy  could  have  no  more  pretensions  to  command 
me,  or  either  of  the  field-officers  of  the  Virginia  regiment, 
than  we  have  to  command  General  Shirley;  and  further 
gave  it  as  their  opinion,  that  as  Dagworthy's  was  only  a 
botched-up  commission  at  best,  and  as  he  commanded  a 
provincial  company,  and  by  virtue  of  a  governor's  commis- 
sion, that  he  ought  to  be  arrested  for  his  presumption. 
They  say,  allowing  his  commission  from  the  King  to  be 
valid,  yet,  as  he  is  not  there  by  order  of  his  Majesty,  he 
can  have  no  better  pretensions  than  a  visiting  half-pay  offi- 
cer, who  transiently  passes  through  the  camp,  to  assume 
the  command. 

"  I  wish  you  would  sound  him  on  this  head,  and  hear 
how  he  will  answer  these  things,  and  let  me  know  when 
you  come  down,  which  I  desire  may  be  immediately,  as 
I  want  much  to  consult  you  upon  several  accounts.  The 
paymaster  and  commissary  (if  he  is  not  very  much  en- 
gaged) must  accompany  you.  Desire  both  to  have  their 
accounts  settled,  and  brought  with  them,  as  that  is  neces- 
sary before  I  can  give  more  money. 

"  I  have  sent  you  one  of  the  mutiny  bills  which  I  re- 
ceived from  below,  but  I  think,  indeed  I  believe  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary,  as  we  still  want  the  power,  to  postpone 
trials  until  after  your  return.  Also  desire  all  the  officers 
who  have  received  money  for  recruiting,  to  make  up  their 
accounts  immediately;  and  charge  for  no  more  men  than 
have  actually  been  received  at  the  several  rendezvous. 
Allowance  will  be  made  for  no  others.  The  arrears  of  pay 
for  these  officers  and  soldiers  who  have  not  received  for 
the  months  of  January  and  February,  are  immediately  to 
be  made  out,  and  sent  down  by  you  with  the  recruiting  ac- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  287 

counts.     Desire  them  to  charge  for  no  men  but  what  are 
present,  as  I  can  pay  for  no  others  now. 

"  Enclosed  is  a  commission  for  Captain  Waggener,  which 
I  have  neglected  giving  before ;  so  long  as  I  have  had  it. 
Desire  him,  as  the  command  upon  your  leaving  the  place 
will  devolve  upon  him,  to  be  very  circumspect  in  his  duty, 
and  to  see  that  the  troops  are  duly  drawn  out  and  trained 
to  their  exercise,  and  practised  to  bush-fighting." 

To  Governor  R.  H.  Morris,  of  Pennsylvania,  Washing- 
ton wrote  from  Winchester,  January'  5,  1756: 

''  I  am  sorry  it  has  not  been  in  my  power  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  yours  until  now.  At  the  time  that  your 
letter  came  to  Winchester,  I  was  at  Williamsburg;  before 
I  got  back  it  was  conveyed  thither;  and  so  from  place  to 
place  has  it  been  tossing  almost  till  this  time. 

"  There  is  nothing  more  necessary  than  good  intelli- 
gence to  frustrate  a  designing  enemy,  and  nothing  that 
requires  greater  pains  to  obtain.  I  shall,  therefore,  cheer- 
fully come  into  any  measures  you  can  propose  to  settle  a 
correspondence  for  this  salutary  end;  and  you  may  de- 
pend upon  receiving  (when  the  provinces  are  threatened) 
the  earliest  and  best  intelligence  that  I  can  procure. 

"  I  sympathized  in  general  concern  to  see  the  inactivity 
of  your  province  in  a  time  of  eminent  danger;  but  am 
pleased  to  find,  that  a  feeling  sense  of  wrongs  has  roused 
the  spirit  of  your  martial  Assembly  to  vote  a  sum  which, 
with  your  judicious  application,  will  turn  to  a  general  good. 

"  We  took  some  pretty  vigorous  measures  to  collect  a 
force  upon  our  frontiers  upon  the  first  alarm,  which  has 
kept  us  peaceable  ever  since.  How  long  this  may  last  is 
uncertain,  since  that  force,  which  were  militia,  are  dis- 
banded, and  the  recruiting  service  almost  stagnated. 

"  If  you  propose  to  levy  troops,  and  their  designation  is 
not  a  secret,  I  should  be  favored  were  I  let  into  the  scheme, 


288  WASHINGTON. 

that  we  may  act  conjointly,  so  far  as  the  nature  of  things 
will  admit. 

"  Pray  direct  to  me  at  Alexandria,  to  which  place  I  de- 
sign to  go  in  about  ten  days  from  this." 

In  communicating  to  the  officers  of  the  Virginia  regi- 
ment the  fact  that  an  officer  had  been  tried  by  court-martial 
and  suspended,  Washington  made  this  address,  January  8, 
1756: 

"  This  timely  warning  of  the  effects  of  misbehavior  will, 
I  hope,  be  instrumental  in  animating  the  younger  officers 
to  a  laudable  emulation  in  the  service  of  their  countr>^ 
Not  that  I  apprehend  any  of  them  can  be  guilty  of  of- 
fences of  this  nature;  but  there  are  many  other  misde- 
meanors, that  will,  without  due  circumspection,  gain  upon 
inactive  minds,  and  produce  consequences  equally  dis- 
graceful. 

"  I  would,  therefore,  earnestly  recommend,  in  every 
point  of  duty,  willingness  to  undertake,  and  intrepid  reso- 
lution to  execute.  Remember  that  it  is  the  actions,  and 
not  the  commission,  that  make  the  officer,  and  that  there 
is  more  expected  from  him  than  the  title.  Do  not  forget 
that  there  ought  to  be  a  time  appropriated  to  attain  this 
knowledge,  as  well  as  to  indulge  pleasure.  And  as  we 
now  have  no  opportunities  to  improve  from  example,  let 
us  read  for  this  desirable  end.  There  are  Bland's  and 
other  treatises  which  will  give  the  wished-for  information. 

"  I  think  it  my  duty,  gentlemen,  as  I  have  the  honor  to 
preside  over  you,  to  give  this  friendly  admonition ;  especi- 
ally as  I  am  determined,  as  far  as  my  small  experience  in 
service,  my  abilities,  and  interest  of  the  service  may  dic- 
tate, to  observe  the  strictest  discipline  through  the  whole 
economy  of  my  behavior.  On  the  other  hand,  you  may 
as  certainly  depend  upon  having  the  strictest  justice  admin- 
istered to  all,  and  that  I  shall  make  it  the  most  agreeable 


I 

1 

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1 

W'.-''     MwlE^^ffik         "^^&'     '''  '  Sr^'       '-       mSmBBS 

<. 

%M'  ^  ^^^m-'^'y^^ 

y 

fy.Li        \:  wd>k\--^j:^i:i^^£^^^^m 

9^K^^.j'   ii 

■p\  u  jguH|^y|k^04H^^H|^tM| 

-^^^  m   x%^^^^^^^^^^^^^BB^m 

LIFE  AND  TIMES,  289 

part  of  my  duty  to  study  merit,  and  reward  the  brave  and 
deserving.  I  assure  you,  gentlemen,  that  partiality  shall 
never  bias  my  conduct,  nor  shall  prejudice  injure  any; 
but,  throughout  the  whole  tenor  of  my  proceedings,  I  shall 
endeavor,  as  far  as  I  am  able,  to  reward  and  punish,  with- 
out the  least  diminution." 

January  14,  1756,  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Din- 
widdie  from  Alexandria: 

"  Major  Lewis,  being  at  Winchester  when  your  letter 
came  to  hand,  was  immediately  despatched  to  Augusta, 
to  take  upon  him  the  command  of  the  troops  destined 
against  the  Shawnese  Town;  with  orders  to  follow  such 
directions  as  he  should  receive  from  you.  This  scheme, 
though,  I  am  apprehensive  will  prove  abortive,  as  we  are 
told  that  those  Indians  are  removed  up  the  river,  into  the 
neighborhood  of  Fort  Duquesne. 

"  I  have  given  all  necessary  orders  for  training  the  men 
to  a  proper  use  of  their  arms,  and  the  method  of  Indian 
fighting,  and  hope  in  a  little  time  to  make  them  expert. 
And  I  should  be  glad  to  have  your  Honor's  express  com- 
mands, either  to  prepare  for  taking  the  field,  or  for  guard- 
ing our  frontiers,  in  the  spring,  because  the  steps  for  these 
two  are  very  different.  I  have  already  built  two  forts  on 
Patterson's  Creek,  which  have  engaged  the  chief  of  the 
inhabitants  to  return  to  the  plantations;  and  have  now 
ordered  Captain  Waggener  with  60  men  to  build  and 
garrison  two  others,  on  places  I  have  pointed  out  high 
up  on  the  South  Branch,  which  will  be  a  means  of  securing 
near  a  hundred  miles  of  our  frontiers,  exclusive  of  the 
command  at  Fort  Dinwiddie,  on  Jackson's  river.  And, 
indeed,  without  a  much  greater  number  of  men  than  we 
have  a  visible  prospect  of  getting,  I  do  not  see  how  it  is 
possible  to  think  of  passing  the  mountains,  or  acting  more 
than  defensively.  This  seems  to  be  the  full  determination 
19 


290  WASHINGTON, 

of  the  Pennsylvanlans ;  so  that  there  can  be  no  hope  of 
assistance  from  that  quarter.  If  we  only  act  defensively, 
I  would  most  earnestly  recommend  the  building  of  a 
strong  fort  at  some  convenient  place  in  Virginia,  as  that 
in  Maryland,  not  to  say  anything  of  its  situation,  which 
is  extremely  bad,  will  ever  be  an  eyesore  to  this  colony, 
and  attended  with  more  inconvenience  than  it  is  possible 
to  enumerate.  One  instance  of  this  I  have  taken  notice 
of,  in  a  letter  that  accompanies  this,  and  many  more  I 
could  recite,  were  it  necessary. 

"  If  we  take  the  field  there  is  no  time  to  carry  on  a  work 
of  this  kind,  but  we  should  immediately  set  about  engag- 
ing wagons,  horses,  forage,  pack-saddles,  etc.  And  here 
I  cannot  help  remarking,  that  I  believe  it  will  be  impossible 
to  get  wagons  or  horses  sufficient,  without  the  old  score 
is  paid  off ;  as  the  people  are  really  ruined  for  want  of  their 
money,  and  complain  justly  of  their  grievances. 

"  I  represented  in  my  last  the  inconveniences  of  the 
late  act  of  Assembly,  which  obliges  us  first  to  send  to 
your  Honor  for  a  commission  to  hold  general  courts- 
martial,  and  then  to  delay  execution  until  a  warrant  can 
be  had  from  Williamsburg;  and  I  hope  you  will  take  the 
thing  into  consideration.  We  have  several  deserters  now 
on  hand,  whom  I  have  taken  by  vigorous  measures,  and 
who  should  be  made  examples  to  others,  as  this  practice 
is  continued  with  greater  spirit  than  ever. 

"  Unless  clothing  is  soon  provided,  the  men  will  be  un- 
fit for  any  kind  of  service.  And  I  know  of  no  expedient 
to  procure  them,  but  by  sending  to  the  northward,  as 
cloth  cannot  be  had  here.  I  left,  among  other  returns,  an 
exact  account  of  the  clothing  at  every  place,  when  I  was 
in  Williamsburg.  I  shan't  care  to  lay  in  provisions  for 
more  than  looo  men,  unless  I  have  your  Honor's  orders. 
We  have  put  out  such  of  the  beeves  as  were  unfit  for 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  291 

slaughtering.  If  they  survive  the  winter  they  may  be 
useful  in  the  summer. 

"  Ensign  Poison  having  received  a  commission  in  Col- 
onel Gage's  regiment,  makes  a  vacancy  here  which,  with 
your  approbation,  will  be  filled  by  Mr.  Dennis  McCarthy, 
whom  you  once  appointed  a  captain.  He  has  continued 
a  volunteer  ever  since,  and  has  recruited  several  men  into 
the  service,  and  I  hope  your  Honor  will  allow  me  the 
liberty,  as  you  once  promised  me,  of  filling  up  the  vacan- 
cies as  they  happen,  with  Ihe  volunteers,  who  serve  with 
that  expectation.  We  have  several  with  us,  that  seem 
to  be  very  deserving  young  gentlemen.  I  shall  observe 
the  strictest  justice  in  promoting  them  according  to  their 
merit,  and  their  time  of  entering  the  service  I  have  or- 
dered Capt.  Hog  to  render  immediately  a  fair  account  to 
the  company  of  the  money  sent  him.  He  was  ordered  to 
lay  in  provisions  for  only  12  months.  Capt.  Stewart  has 
recruited  his  complement  of  men.  I  should  be  glad  to 
know  whether  he  is  to  complete  his  horse  against  the 
spring  and  provide  accoutrements. 

"I  have  been  obliged  to  suspend  Ensign  Dekeyser  for 
misbehavior  until  your  pleasure  is  known.  See  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  enquiring  courts.  His  character  in  many 
other  respectc  has  been  infamous.  I  have  also  been 
obliged  to  threaten,  in  your  name,  the  new  appointed  offi- 
cers with  the  same  fate  if  they  are  not  more  diligent  in 
recruiting  the  companies,  as  each  received  his  commission 
upon  those  terms.  Capt.  Mercer  comes  down  for  more 
money  and  to  satisfy  how  the  iio,ooo  has  been  applied. 

'''  The  skipper  of  the  vessels  has  embezzled  some  of  the 
stores;  but  for  want  of  a  particular  invoice  of  them,  we 
cannot  ascertain  the  loss.  He  is  kept  in  confinement  until 
your  Honor's  pleasure  is  known.'* 


392  WASHINGTON. 

Under  the  same  date  Washington  wrote  again  to  Gov. 
Dinwiddie  ftom  Alexandria: 

"  When  I  was  down  the  Committee  among*  other  things 
resolved,  that  the  Maryland  and  Carolina  companies 
should  not  be  supported  with  our  provisions.  This  re- 
solve (I  think)  met  with  your  approbation ;  upon  which  I 
wrote  to  Colonel  Stephen,  desiring  him  to  acquaint  Cap- 
tain Dagworthy  thereof,  who  paid  slight  regard  to  it, 
saying  it  was  in  the  King's  garrison,  and  all  the  troops 
had  an  equal  right  to  draw  provisions  with  us,  by  his 
order  as  commanding  officer,  and  that  we,  after  it  was 
put  there,  had  no  power  to  remove  it  without  his  leave. 
I  should,  therefore,  be  glad  of  your  Honor's  peremptory 
orders  what  to  do  in  this  case,  as  I  do  not  care  to  act 
without  instructions,  lest  it  should  appear  to  proceed  from 
pique  and  resentment  at  having  the  command  disputed. 
This  is  one  among  the  numberless  inconveniences  of  hav- 
ing the  fort  in  Maryland.  Captain  Dagworthy,  I  dare 
venture  to  affirm,  is  encouraged  to  say  this  by  Governor 
Sharpe,  who  we  know  has  wrote  to  him  to  keep  the  com- 
mand. This  Captain  Dagworthy  acquainted  Colonel 
Stephen  of  himself.  As  I  have  not  yet  heard  how  Gen- 
eral Shirley  has  answered  your  Honor's  request,  I  fear 
the  success,  especially  as  it  is  next  to  an  impossibility  (as 
Governor  Sharpe  has  been  there  to  plead  Captain  Dag- 
worthy's  cause)  by  writing  to  make  the  General  ac- 
quainted with  the  nature  of  the  dispute.  The  officers 
have  drawn  up  a  memorial  to  be  presented  to  the  Gen- 
eral, and,  that  it  may  be  properly  strengthened,  they  hum- 
bly beg  your  solicitation  to  have  us  (as  we  have  certain 
advices  that  it  is  in  his  power)  put  upon  the  establish- 
ment. This  would  at  once  put  an  end  to  contention, 
which  is  the  root  of  evil,  and  destructive  to  the  best  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  293 

Operations;  and  turn  all  our  movements  into  a  free,  easy 
channel. 

"  They  have  urged  it  in  the  warmest  manner  to  me,  to 
appear  personally  before  the  General  for  that  end,  which 
I  would,  at  this  disagreeable  season,  gladly  do,  things  be- 
ing thus  circumstanced,  if  I  had  your  permission;  which 
I  more  freely  ask,  since  I  am  determined  to  resign  a  com- 
mission, which  you  were  generously  pleased  to  offer  me, 
(and  for  which  I  shall  always  retain  a  grateful  sense  of 
the  favor),  rather  than  submit  to  the  command  of  a  per- 
son, who,  I  think,  has  not  such  superlative  merit  to  bal- 
ance the  inequality  of  rank,  however  he  adheres  to  what 
he  calls  his  right,  and  in  which  I  know  he  is  supported 
by  Governor  Sharpe.  He  says,  that  he  has  no  commis- 
sion from  the  province  of  Maryland,  but  acts  by  virtue 
of  that  from  the  King;  that  this  was  the  condition  of  his 
engaging  in  the  Maryland  service ;  and  when  he  was  sent 
up  there  the  ist  of  last  October,  was  ordered  by  Governor 
Sharpe  and  Sir  John  St.  Clair  not  to  give  up  his  right. 
To  my  certain  knowledge  his  rank  was  disputed  before 
General  Burgoyne,  who  gave  it  in  his  favor;  and  he  ac- 
cordingly took  place  of  every  captain  upon  the  expedition, 
except  Capt.  James  Mercer  and  Capt.  Rutherford,  whose 
commissions  were  older  than  his ;  so  that  I  should  not  by 
any  means  choose  to  act,  as  your  Honor  hinted  in  your 
last,  lest  I  should  be  called  to  an  account  myself. 

"  I  have,  during  my  stay  above  (at  Winchester)  from 
the  1st  of  December  to  this,  disposed  of  all  the  men  and 
officers  (that  are  not  recruiting  and  can  be  spared  from 
the  fort)  in  the  best  manner  I  can  for  the  defence  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  they  will  need  no  further  orders  till  I 
could  return.  And  the  recruiting  officers  are  allowed  till 
the  first  of  March  to  repair  to  their  rendezvous,  which 
leaves  at  present  nothing  to  do'  at  the  Fort,  but  to  train 


294  WASHINGTON. 

and  discipline  the  men,  and  prepare  and  salt  the  provi- 
sions. For  the  better  perfecting  both  these,  I  have  left 
full  and  clear  directions. 

"  Besides,  in  other  respects,  I  think  my  going  to  the 
northward  might  be  of  service,  as  I  should  thereby,  so 
far  as  they  thought  proper  to  communicate,  be  acquainted 
with  the  plan  of  operations,  especially  the  Pennsylvanians  \ 
so  as  to  act,  as  much  as  the  nature  of  things  would  admit, 
in  concert. 

"  If  you  think  proper  to  comply  with  my  request,  I 
should  be  glad  of  any  letters,  such  as  you  think  would 
enforce  the  petition  to  the  General,  or  any  of  the  Gov- 
ernors in  my  way  there." 

Two  weeks  later,  February  i,  1756,  Washington  wrote 
from  Alexandria  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Stephen: 

"  Looking  upon  our  affairs  at  this  crtical  juncture  to 
be  of  such  importance,  and  having  a  personal  acquaintance 
with  General  Shirley,  which  I  thought  might  add  some 
weight  to  the  strength  of  our  memorial,  I  solicited  leave, 
which  is  obtained,  to  visit  him  in  person,  and  accordingly 
set  out  in  two  days  for  Boston,  having  procured  letters, 
etc.,  from  the  Governor,  which  was  the  result  of  a  Council 
for  the  purpose  called.  You  may  depend  upon  it,  I  shall 
leave  no  stone  unturned  for  this  salutary  end ;  and,  I  think, 
if  reason,  justice,  and  every  other  equitable  right  can  claim 
attention,  we  deserve  to  be  heard. 

"As  I  have  taken  the  fatigue,  etc.,  of  this  tedious  jour- 
ney upon  myself,  (which  I  never  thought  of  until  I  had  left 
Winchester),  I  hope  you  will  conduct  everything  in  my 
absence  for  the  interest  and  honor  of  the  service.  And 
I  must  exhort  you  in  the  most  earnest  manner  to  strict 
discipline  and  due  exercise  of  arms. 

"  You  may  tell  Mr.  Livingston  from  me,  that,  if  the 
soldiers  are  not  skilled  in  arms  equal  to  what  may  reason- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  295 

ably  be  expected,  he  most  assuredly  shall  answer  it  at  my 
return.  And  I  must  ingenuously  tell  you,  that  I  also  ex- 
pect to  find  them  expert  at  bush-fighting. 

"The  Governor  seems  determined  to  make  the  officers 
comply  with  the  terms  of  getting  their  commissions,  or 
forfeit  them,  and  approves  of  Dekeyser's  suspension,  and 
orders  that  he  shall  not  be  admitted  into  the  camp.  He 
seems  uneasy  at  what  I  own  gives  me  much  concern,  L  e., 
that  gaming  seems  to  be  introduced  into  the  camp.  I 
am  ordered  to  discourage  it,  and  must  desire  that  you  will 
intimate  the  same. 

"  Things  not  being  rightly  settled  for  punishing  de- 
serters according  to  their  crimes,  you  must  go  on  in  the 
old  way  of  whipping  stoutly." 

To  Governor  Dinwiddie,  Washington  wrote  from  Alex- 
andria, February  2,  1756: 

"  I  can  but  return  my  hearty  thanks  for  your  kind  con- 
descension in  suffering  me  to  wait  upon  General  Shirley, 
as  I  am  very  well  assured  it  was  done  with  the  intention 
to  favor  my  suit. 

"  There  is  as  yet  an  unanswerable  argument  against  our 
taking  the  field,  which  I  forgot  to  mention  in  my  last ;  that 
is,  the  want  of  a  train  of  artillery,  and,  what  is  full  as  nec- 
essary, engineers  to  conduct  the  affair,  if  we  hope  to  ap- 
proach Fort  Duquesne.  By  the  advices,  which  we  have 
received  hitherto  from  the  northward,  the  Pennsylvanians 
are  determined  to  act  defensively.  For  that  purpose  they 
have  posted  their  new  raised  levies  upon  their  frontiers 
at  different  passes,  and  have  received  the  additional 
strength  and  favor  of  a  detachment  or  two  from  the  regu- 
lars. I  have  ordered,  besides  the  forts  that  are  built  and 
are  now  building,  that  a  road  which  I  had  reconnoitred, 
and  which  proves  nearer  and  better,  to  be  immediately 
opened  for  the  more  easy  transportation   of  stores,  etc.. 


296  WASHINGTON, 

from  Winchester  to  Fort  Cumberland ;  so  there  is  not  the 
least  fear  of  the  soldiers  being  corrupted  through 
idleness." 

After  explaining  that  the  commission  for  calling  gen- 
eral courts-martial  did  not  empower  the  commander  to 
act  without  first  receiving  an  order  from  the  Governor 
to  do  so,  Washington  further  said : 

"  I  have  always,  so  far  as  it  was  in  my  power,  en- 
deavored to  discourage  gaming  in  the  camp;  and  always 
shall  so  long  as  I  have  the  honor  to  preside  there. 

"  I  cannot  help  observing  that  your  Honor,  if  you  have 
not  seen  the  clothing  lately  sent  up,  has  been  imposed 
upon  by  the  contractors,  for  they  are  really  unfit  for  use  ; 
at  least,  will  soon  be  so."] 

The  chronic  difficulty  of  the  old  contest  between  royal 
and  provincial  officers  had  not  yet  been  laid.  At  Fort 
Cumberland  a  royally  commissioned  officer,  Captain  Dag- 
worthy,  with  a  small  company  of  Maryland  militia,  refused 
obedience  to  the  Virginia  provincial  commander-in-chief, 
and  according  to  the  King's  order  in  the  case  of  royal  and 
provincial  officers,  he  even  claimed  precedency  in  rank. 
The  commander  appealed  to  Governor  Dinwiddle  but  could 
not  induce  him  to  take  decisive  measures  in  the  case,  and 
the  Governor  of  Maryland  actually  sustained  the  claim  of 
Dagworthy.  To  settle  this  annoying  and  embarrassing  dis- 
pute Washington,  at  the  request  of  his  officers,  with  the 
approval  of  Governor  Dinwiddle  and  with  commendatory 
letters  from  him  (Feb.  4,  1756),  repaired  to  Boston  to 
General  Shirley,  who  then  was  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  British  troops  in  America.  It  was  now  midwinter, 
but  attended  by  Captain  Mercer,  who  was  his  aide,  and 
by  Captain  Stewart,  he  performed  the  journey  of  500 
miles  on  horseback. 

General  Shirley's  decision  on  the  subject  was  ready  and 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  297 

positive.  He  issued  an  order  requiring  Captain  Dagworthy 
to  yield  obedience  to  the  Virginia  commander.  Washing- 
ton he  received  in  the  kindest  manner,  and  he  acquainted 
him  with  the  details  of  his  plan  of  the  next  season's  cam- 
paign. 

The  journey  to  Boston  by  way  of  Philadelphia,  New 
York,  and  ocher  principal  cities,  little  as  such  results 
could  have  been  anticipated  or  could  be  desired  by  sticklers 
for  the  superiority  of  royal  commissions,  essentially  con- 
tributed to  Washington's  celebrity,  influence,  and  knowl- 
edge of  affairs.  In  less  than  two  months'  time  he  was 
again  engrossed  with  measures  for  repelling  intrusions  of 
the  French  and  for  staying  depredations  and  incursions  of 
the  savages,  which  had  become  frequent  and  very  daring. 

[Washington  left  Alexandria  for  Boston,  February  4, 
1756.  He  was  in  Philadelphia  on  the  8th,  where  the  old 
campaigner.  Gist,  had  found  reason  the  autumn  before 
to  write  to  him :  "  Your  name  is  more  talked  of  in  Phila- 
delphia than  that  of  any  other  person  in  the  army,  and 
everybody  seems  willing  to  venture  under  your  com- 
mand." The  New  York  Mercury  of  February  i6th  re- 
corded his  arrival  in  New  York  on  the  15th,  and  on  the 
26th  he  had  left  for  Boston  on  the  Friday  previous,  the 
25th.  He  passed  through  New  London,  Newport,  and 
Providence,  and  was  in  Boston  February  27th-March  loth. 
He  was  in  New  York  on  the  return  March  14th;  was  in 
Philadelphia  March  17th;  and  March  23d  was  at  Alexan- 
dria, to  resume  his  duties  as  Commander-in-Chief  on  the 
frontier.  April  7,  1756,  he  wrote  from  Winchester  to 
Governor  Dinwiddie: 

''  I  arrived  here  yesterday,  and  think  it  advisable  to 
despatch  an  express  to  inform  you  of  the  unhappy  situa- 
tion of  affairs  in  this  quarter.  The  enemy  have  returned 
in  greater  numbers,  committed  several  murders  not  far 


298  WASHINGTON. 

from  Winchester,  and  even  are  so  daring  as  to  attack  our 
forts  in  open  day,  as  your  Honor  may  see  by  the  enclosed 
letters  and  papers.  Many  of  the  inhabitants  are  in  a 
miserable  situation  by  their  losses,  and  so  apprehensive 
of  danger  that,  I  believe,  unless  a  stop  is  put  to  the  depre- 
dations of  the  Indians,  the  Blue  Ridge  w^ill  soon  become 
our  frontier. 

''I  find  it  impossible  to  continue  on  to  Fort  Cumber- 
land, until  a  body  of  men  can  be  raised,  in  order  to  do 
v^rhat  I  have  advised  with  Lord  Fairfax,  and  other  officers 
of  the  militia,  who  have  ordered  each  captain  to  call  a 
private  muster,  and  to  read  the  exhortation  enclosed  (for 
orders  are  no  longer  regarded  in  this  county),  in  hopes 
that  this  expedient  may  meet  with  the  wished-for  success. 
If  it  should,  I  shall  with  such  men  as  are  ordered  from 
Fort  Cumberland  to  join  these,  scour  the  woods  and  sus- 
pected places,  in  all  the  mountains,  valleys,  etc.,  on  this 
part  of  our  frontiers,  and  doubt  not  but  I  shall  fall  in  with 
the  Indians  and  their  more  cruel  associates !  I  hope  the 
present  emergency  of  affairs,  assisted  by  such  good  news 
as  the  Assembly  may  by  this  time  have  received  from 
England,  and  the  Commissioners,  will  determine  them 
to  take  vigorous  measures  for  their  own  and  country's 
safety,  and  no  longer  depend  on  an  uncertain  way  of  rais- 
ing men  for  their  own  protection.  However  absurd  it 
may  appear,  it  is  nevertheless  certain,  that  500  Indians 
have  it  more  in  their  power  to  annoy  the  inhabitants  than 
ten  times  their  number  of  regulars.  For  besides  the  ad- 
vantageous way  they  have  of  fighting  in  the  woods,  their 
cunning  and  craft  are  not  to  be  equalled,  neither  their 
activity  and  indefatigable  sufferings.  They  prowl  about 
like  wolves,  and,  like  them,  do  their  mischief  by  stealth. 
They  depend  upon  their  dexterity  in  hunting  and  upon 
the  cattle  of  the  inhabitants  for  provisions.     For  which 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  299 

reason,  I  own,  I  do  not  think  it  unworthy  the  notice  of 
the  legislature  to  compel  the  inhabitants  (if  a  general  war 
is  likely  to  ensue,  and  things  to  continue  in  this  un- 
happy situation  for  any  time),  to  live  in  townships,  work- 
ing at  each  others  farms  by  turns,  and  to  drive  their  cattle 
into  the  thickly  settled  parts  of  the  country.  Were  this 
done,  they  could  not  be  cut  off  by  small  parties,  and  large 
ones  could  not  subsist  without  provisions." 

To  Speaker  Robinson,  Washington  also  wrote: 

"If  the  fears  of  the  people  do  not  magnify  numbers, 
those  of  the  enemy  are  not  inconsiderable.  They  have 
made  many  ineffectual  attempts  upon  several  of  our  forts, 
destroyed  cattle,  burned  plantations,  and  this  in  defiance 
of  our  smaller  parties,  while  they  dexterously  avoid  the 
larger.  Our  detachments,  by  what  I  can  learn,  have 
sought  them  diligently,  but  the  cunning  and  vigilance  of 
Indians  in  the  woods  are  no  more  to  be  conceived,  than 
they  are  to  be  equalled  by  our  people.  Indians  are  only 
match  for  Indians ;  and  without  these,  we  shall  ever  fight 
upon  unequal  terms.  I  hope  the  Assembly  since  they 
see  the  difficulty  of  getting  men  by  enlistment,  will  no 
longer  depend  upon  that  uncertain  way  of  raising  them, 
but  make  each  of  the  lower  Counties  furnish  its  full  pro- 
portion." 

The  work  of  the  recruiting  officers  for  the  whole  win- 
ter had  only  secured  600  men.  In  the  letter  to  Dinwiddie 
of  April  7th,  Washington  went  on  to  say : 

"  It  seemed  to  be  the  sentiment  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses when  I  was  down,  that  a  chain  of  forts  should  be 
erected  upon  our  frontiers,  for  the  defence  of  the  people. 
This  expedient,  in  my  opinion,  without  an  inconceivable 
number  of  men,  will  never  answer  their  expectations." 

The  House  had  voted  in  the  spring  session  to  erect  a 
chain   of   forts    beginning   at    Harry    Enochs,   on    Great 


300  -  WASHINGTON. 

Cape-capon,  in  the  county  of  Hampshire,  and  extending 
to  the  south  fork  of  Mayo-river  in  Halifax  county,  the 
number  and  distance  from  each  other  to  be  such  as  the 
governor  or  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  colony  should 
think  necessary." 

After  a  reference  to  Major  Lewis's  expedition,  intended 
to  reach  the  Indian  Shawanes  Town,  but  prevented  by  the 
state  of  the  rivers,  swollen  by  heavy  rains  and  melting 
snow,  Washington  goes  on  to  say: 

"  It  was  an  expedition,  from  which,  on  account  of  the 
length  of  the  march  down,  I  always  had  little  expectation 
of,  and  often  expressed  my  uneasy  apprehensions  on  that 
head.  But  since  they  are  returned,  with  the  Indians  that 
accompanied  them,  I  think  it  would  be  a  very  happy  step 
to  prevail  upon  the  latter  to  proceed  as  far  as  Fort  Cum- 
berland. It  is  in  their  power  to  be  of  infinite  use  to  us ; 
and  without  Indians,  we  shall  never  be  able  to  cope  with 
those  cruel  foes  to  our  country. 

"  I  would  therefore  beg  leave  to  recommend  in  a  very 
earnest  manner,  that  your  Honor  would  send  an  express 
to  them  immediately  for  this  desirable  end.  I  should 
have  done  it  myself,  but  was  uncertain  whether  it  might 
prove  agreeable  or  not.  I  also  hope  your  Honor  will 
order  Major  Lewis  to  secure  his  guides,  as  I  understand 
he  attributes  all  his  misfortunes  to  their  misconduct.  Such 
offences  as  those  should  meet  with  adequate  punishment, 
else  we  may  ever  be  misled  by  designing  villains. 

"  Since  writing  the  above,  Mr.  Pearis,  who  commanded 
a  party  as  per  enclosed  list,  is  returned,  who  relates,  that, 
upon  the  North  River,  he  fell  in  with  a  small  body  of  In- 
dians which  he  engaged,  and,  after  a  dispute  of  half  an 
hour,  put  them  to  flight.  M.  Douville,  commander  of  the 
party,  was  killed  and  scalped,  and  his  instructions  found 
about  him,  which  I  enclose.     We  had  one  man  killed,  and 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  301 

two  wounded.  Mr.  Pearis  sends  the  scalp  by  Jenkins ; 
and  I  hope,  ahhough  it  is  not  an  Indian's,  they  will  meet 
with  an  adequate  reward  at  least,  as  the  Monsieur's  is  of 
much  more  consequence.  The  whole  party  jointly  claim 
the  reward,  no  person  pretending  solely  to  assume  the 
merit." 

The  Assembly  had  offered,  in  August,  1755,  a  reward  of 
iio  for  every  scalp  of  a  male  Indian  above  the  age  of 
twelve.  This  reward  was  increased  to  £15  in  April,  1757, 
and  a  further  sum  of  £30  for  each  scalp  taken  within  the 
next  two  years.  Maryland  had,  in  September,  1756,  made 
the  reward  for  an  Indian  scalp  £50. 

The  letter  to  Dinwiddie  continues : 

"  Your  Honor  may  in  some  measure  penetrate  into  the 
daring  designs  of  the  French  by  their  instructions,  where 
orders  are  given  to  burn,  if  possible,  our  magazine  at 
Conococheague,  a  place  that  is  in  the  midst  of  a  thickly 
settled  country." 

The  orders  in  question  were  given  by  Dumas,  who  had 
succeeded  Contrecoeur  as  French  commandant  at  Fort 
Duquesne.  In  translation  they  read  as  follows :  "  Fort 
Duquesne,  March  23,  1756.  The  Sieur  Douville,  at  the 
head  of  a  detachment  of  50  savages,  is  ordered  to  go  and 
observe  the  motions  of  the  enemy  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Fort  Cumberland.  He  will  endeavor  to  harass  their 
convoys,  and  burn  their  magazines  at  Conococheague, 
should  this  be  practicable.  He  must  use  every  effort  to 
take  prisoners,  who  may  confirm  what  we  already  know 
of  the  enemies  designs.  The  Sieur  Douville  will  employ 
all  his  talent  and  all  his  credit  to  prevent  the  savages  from 
committing  any  cruelties  on  those  who  may  fall  into  their 
hands.  Honor  and  humanity  ought,  in  this  respect,  to 
serve  as  our  guide." 

These  last  words  Mr.  W.  C.  Ford  says,  "  at  least  give  a 


WASHINGTON. 

favorable  indication  of  the  commandant's  humanity,"  the 
fact  having  been  that  the  words  in  no  way  operated  to 
hold  the  hand  of  savage  massacre,  and  most  manifestly 
were  neither  intended  nor  expected  to  have  any  such 
result.  Washington's  letter  goes  on  to  say  of  the  threat- 
ened magazine : 

"  I  have  ordered  the  party  there  to  be  made  as  strong 
as  time  and  our  present  circumstances  will  afford,  for  fear 
they  should  attempt  to  execute  the  orders  of  Dumas.  I 
have  also  ordered  up  an  officer  and  20  recruits  to  assist 
Joseph  Edwards,  and  the  people  on  those  waters  (the 
Great  Cacapehon).  The  people  of  this  town  are  under 
dreadful  apprehensions  of  an  attack,  and  all  the  roads 
between  this  and  Fort  Cumberland  are  much  infested.  As 
I  apprehend  you  will  be  obliged  to  draft  men,  I  hope  care 
will  be  taken  that  none  shall  be  chosen  but  active,  reso- 
lute men, —  men,  who  are  practised  to  arms,  and  are 
marksmen. 

"  I  also  hope  that  a  good  many  more  will  be  taken  than 
what  are  requisite  to  complete  our  numbers  to  what  the 
Assembly  design  to  establish;  as  many  of  those  we  have 
got  are  really  in  a  manner  unfit  for  duty;  and  were  re- 
ceived more  through  necessity  than  choice ;  and  will  very 
badly  bear  a  re-examination.  Another  thing  I  would  beg 
leave  to  recommend;  and  that  is,  that  such  men  as  are 
drafted,  should  be  only  taken  for  a  time,  by  which  means 
we  shall  get  better  men,  and  which  will  in  all  probability 
stay  with  us." 

"  I  think  it  not  amiss,"  Washington  said  in  a  letter  to 
Speaker  Robinson,  "  that  they  should  serve  only  18  or  20 
months,  and  then  be  discharged.  Twenty  months  will 
embrace  two  full  campaigns,  which  will,  I  apprehend, 
bring  matters  to  a  crisis  one  way  or  another." 

In  a  letter  of  April  9,    1756,  to  Governor  Morris,  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  303 

Pennsylvania,  Washington  related  the  success  of  the  party 
which  encountered  Douville  with  his  detachment  of  sav- 
ages, and  then  went  on  to  say : 

"  The  accident  that  has  determined  the  fate  of  M.  Dou- 
ville has,  I  believe,  dispersed  his  party,  for  I  don't  hear  of 
any  mischief  done  in  this  colony  since,  though  we  are  not 
without  numbers  who  are  making  hourly  discoveries. 

"  I  have  sent  you  a  copy  of  the  instructions  that  were 
found  about  this  officer,  that  you  may  see  how  bold  and 
enterprising  the  enemy  have  grown,  how  unconfined  are 
the  ambitious  designs  of  the  French,  and  how  much  it  will 
be  in  their  power  (if  the  Colonies  continue  in  their  fatal 
lethargy)  to  give  a  final  stab  to  liberty  and  property. 

"  Nothing  I  more  sincerely  wish  than  a  Union  to  the 
Colonies  in  this  time  of  eminent  danger,  and  that  you  may 
find  your  Assembly  in  a  temper  of  mind  to  act  consist- 
ently with  their  preservation.  What  Maryland  has  done 
or  will  do,  I  know  not,  but  this  I  am  certain  of,  that 
Virginia  will  do  everything  that  can  he  expected  to  promote  the 
public  good. 

"  I  went  to  Williamsburg  fully  resolved  to  resign  my 
commission,  but  was  disuaded  from  it  at  least  for  a  time. 

"  P.  S.  A  letter  this  instant  arriving  from  WilHamsburg 
informs  that  our  Assembly  have  voted  £20,000  more,  and 
that  their  forces  should  be  increased  to  2000  men.  A 
laudable  example  this,  and  I  hope  not  a  singular  one." 

In  a  letter  of  April  10,  1756,  Governor  Sharpe  of  Mary- 
land said  to  Governor  Shirley  of  Massachusetts,  who  was 
British  Commander-in-Chief  for  America: 

"The  enclosed  letter  I  am  desired  to  forward  to  your 
Excellency  from  Colonel  Washington,  and  to  request  you 
to  commission  and  appoint  him  second  in  command,  in 
case  these  colonies  shall  raise  a  sufl^icient  number  of  troops 
for  carrying  on  an  expedition  or  making  a  diversion  to 


304  WASHINGTON. 

the  westward  this  summer.  As  Mr.  Washington  is  much 
esteemed  in  Virginia,  and  i^ally  seems  a  gentleman  of 
merit,  I  should  be  exceedingly  glad  to  learn  that  your 
Excellency  is  not  averse  to  favoring  his  application  and 
request." 

To  John  Robinson,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
Washington  wrote  from  Winchester,  April  i6,  1756: 

"  When  I  wrote  you  last,  I  was  in  high  hopes  of  being 
by  this  time  at  the  head  of  a  large  party  scouring  the 
Alleghany  Hills.  But  the  timidity  of  the  inhabitants  of 
this  county  is  to  be  equalled  by  nothing  but  their  perverse- 
ness.  Yesterday  was  the  time  appointed  for  all  to  meet 
who  were  inclined  to  join  for  this  desirable  end,  and  only 
15  came,  some  of  whom  refused  to  go  but  upon  terms 
such  as  must  have  rendered  their  services  burthensome 
to  the  country.  Therefore,  I  am  again  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  waiting  the  arrival  of  a  party  from  Fort  Cum- 
berland before  I  can  leave  this  place.  There  has  been 
no  mischief  done  since  I  wrote  you  last,  which  I  attribute 
in  some  measure  to  the  frequent  parties  I  have  ordered 
out  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy.  Yesterday  I  received  an 
account  which  made  me  suspect  that  the  Indians  rendez- 
voused upon  the  back  of  the  Warm  Spring  Mountain.  I 
have,  therefore,  sent  orders  to  an  officer  who  is  out  with 
a  party  of  100  men,  to  proceed  thither  with  the  best 
guides  he  can  procure,  and  search  that  mountain  well; 
which,  if  the  intelligence  be  true,  I  hope  he  will  render 
a  good  account  of  them. 

"  Nothing,  Sir,  equals  the  pleasure  I  felt  at  hearing  of 
the  generous  supplies  the  Assembly  have  voted.  But  to 
find  that  the  men  and  money  which  they  have  given  are 
properly  disposed  of,  and  that  the  men  are  formed  for  the 
service  of  the  country,  and  not  to  make  commissions  to 
serve  individuals,   I  have   sent  the  Governor  a  plan  or 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  305 

scheme,  of  which  you  have  a  copy;  to  form  the  2000  men 
into  one  regiment,  consisting  of  two  battalions,  of  ten 
companies  each ;  with  five  field  officers  each  having  a  com- 
pany, and  every  company  to  consist  of  one  captain,  two 
lieutenants,  one  ensign,  four  sergeants,  four  corporals, 
two  drummers,  and  87  private  men:  which  will  save  the 
country  the  annual  expense  of  £5006  i6s.  and  8d.,  as  you 
may  see  by  the  enclosed.  And  we  at  the  same  time  be 
better  appointed,  and  established  more  after  the  British 
custom  than  we  now  are,  or  shall  be  if  formed  into  two 
regiments,  or  one  regiment  with  only  50  men  in  a  com- 
pany. The  difference,  £5006  i6s.  8d.,  would  go  a  great 
length  either  in  clothing,  or  defraying  incident  charges 
of  the  regiment.  Another  difference  is  that  of  giving  the 
field  officers  companies,  which  is  practised  in  all  parts  of 
the  world  but  this,  and  here  discontinued  evidently  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  country,  as  the  field  officers  who 
have  no  companies  are  allowed  in  the  same  proportion 
as  if  they  had,  and  three  captains  are  paid  to  do  this  duty. 

"  I  have  made  bold.  Sir,  to  offer  my  opinion  freely,  and 
if  it  meets  with  the  approbation  of  your  House,  I  should 
be  glad  if  you  would  help  it  into  execution.  Otherwise, 
as  I  am  sensible  the  Governor  may  be  strongly  impor- 
tuned for  commissions,  he  may  good-naturedly  grant 
them  without  considering  how  manifest  an  injury  it  will 
be  to  the  country  and  service  in  general. 

"As  I  am  convinced  that  no  other  method  can  be  used 
to  raise  2000  men,  but  by  drafting,  I  hope  to  be  excused 
when  I  again  repeat,  how  great  care  should  be  observed 
in  choosing  active  marksmen.  The  manifest  inferiority  of 
inactive  persons,  unused  to  arms,  in  this  kind  of  service, 
although  equal  in  numbers,  to  lively  persons  who  have 
practised  hunting,  is  inconceivable.  The  chance  against 
them  is  more  than  two  to  one.  Another  thing  I  hope  will 
20 


306  WASHINGTON. 

merit  the  consideration  of  the  Assembly,  and  that  is,  that 
they  will  put  all  such  men  as  are  raised  for  the  expedition 
in  actual  pay,  and  under  the  same  dicipRne  that  ours  are 
at  present ;  otherwise,  I  am  very  well  convinced  their  good 
intentioijs  will  prove  abortive,  and  all  the  drafts  quit  the 
service  as  soon,  or  before,  they  are  brought  into  it. 

"  I  do  not  conceive  it  to  be  a  hardship  to  put  even  drafts 
under  martial  law,  if  they  are  only  taken  for  a  certain  time, 
which  I  could  wish  to  be  the  case,  as  I  thereby  hope  for 
better  men/* 

To  Governor  Dinwiddie  in  this  connection  Washington 
wrote  : 

"  I  have  a  brother  that  has  long  discovered  an  inclina- 
tion to  enter  the  service,  but  has  till  this  been  dissuaded 
from  it  by  my  mother,  who  now,  I  believe,  will  give  consent. 
I  must,  therefore,  beg  that,  if  your  Honor  should  issue  any 
new  commission  before  I  come  down,  you  will  think  of 
him  and  reserve  a  Lieutenancy.  I  flatter  myself  that  he 
will  endeavor  to  deserve  it  as  well  as  some  that  have,  and 
others  that  may  get  (commissions)." 

April  1 8,  1756,  Washington  wrote  from  Winchester  to 
Dinwiddie : 

"  It  gave  me  infinite  concern  to  find  in  yours  by  Gov- 
ernor Innes,  that  any  representations  should  inflame  the 
Assembly  against  the  Virginia  regiment,  or  give  cause 
to  suspect  the  morality  and  good  behavior  of  the  officers. 
(Dinwiddie  had  reported  "  that  the  Assembly  were  greatly 
inflamed,  being  told  that  the  greatest  immoralities  and 
drunkenness  have  been  much  countenanced  and  proper 
discipline  neglected ").  How  far  any  of  the  individuals 
may  have  deserved  such  invidious  reflections,  I  will  not 
take  it  upon  me  to  determine,  but  this  I  am  certain  of, 
and  can  call  my  conscience,  and  what,  I  suppose,  will  be  a 
still  more  demonstrable  proof  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  my 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  307 

orders,  to  witness  how  much  I  have,  both  by  threats  and 
persuasive  means,  endeavored  to  discountenance  gaming, 
drinking,  swearing,  and  irregularities  of  every  other  kind ; 
while  I  have,  on  the  other  hand,  practised  every  artifice 
to  inspire  a  laudable  emulation  in  the  officers  for  the  ser- 
vice of  their  country,  and  to  encourage  the  soldiers  in 
the  unerring  exercise  of  their  duty.  How  far  I  have  failed 
in  this  desirable  end  I  cannot  pretend  to  say.  But  it  is 
nevertheless  a  point,  which  does  in  my  opinion  merit 
some  scrutiny,  before  it  meets  with  a  final  condemnation. 
Yet  I  will  not  undertake  to  vouch  for  the  conduct  of  many 
of  the  officers,  as  I  know  there  are  some  who  have  the 
seeds  of  idleness  very  strongly  engrafted  in  their  natures ; 
and  I  also  know  that  the  unhappy  difference  about  the 
command,  which  has  kept  me  from  Fort  Cumberland,  has 
consequently  prevented  me  from  enforcing  the  orders 
which  I  never  failed  to  send. 

"  However,  if  I  continue  in  the  service,  I  shall  take  care 
to  act  with  a  little  more  vigor  than  has  hitherto  been 
practised,  since  I  find  it  so  necessary. 

"  I  wrote  your  Honor  in  my  last  how  unsuccessfully  we 
attempted  to  raise  the  militia,  and  that  I  was  reduced  to 
the  necessity  of  waiting  here  the  arrival  of  an  escort  from 
Fort  Cumberland. 

"The  garrison  at  Fort  Cumberland  is  barely  manned. 
The  rest  are  out  on  parties;  yet  the  Indians  continue  to 
hunt  the  roads,  and  pick  up  stragghng  persons." 

On  the  next  day  Washington  further  wrote  to  Din- 
widdie : 

"  Since  writing  my  letter  of  yesterday's  date,  the  en- 
closed came  to  hand,  by  which  your  Honor  will  be  in- 
formed of  a  very  unlucky  affair  (a  skirmish  with  the  In- 
dians at  Edwards's  Fort,  in  which  Captain  J.  Mercer  and 
several  of  his  party  were  killed). 


308  WASHINGTON. 

"  I  immediately  consulted  Governor  Innes,  and  such 
officers  of  my  regiment  as  were  at  this  place,  on  the  neces- 
sary steps  to  be  taken.  They  unanimously  advised  that  1 
should  remain  here  with  the  50  recruits  that  are  in  town, 
for  the  defence  of  the  place,  until  the  militia  be  raised, 
that  we  may  thereby  be  enabled  to  compose  a  formidable 
body  and  march  out  against  the  enemy.  This  engagement 
happened  within  20  miles  of  Winchester,  and  the  sergeant, 
who  brought  the  letter,  assures  me  that  they  have  reason 
to  imagine,  that  their  numbers  are  greater  than  the  letter 
informs.  He  says  that  there  were  many  French  amongst 
them,  and  that  the  chief  part  of  the  whole  were  mounted 
on  horseback;  so  that  there  is  a  great  probability  that 
they  may  have  a  design  upon  this  place. 

**  I  have  sent  an  express  to  Lord  Fairfax,  with  a  copy 
of  Stark's  letter,  and  have  desired,  in  the  most  earnest 
manner,  that  he  will  be  expeditious  in  calling  the  militia; 
but,  alas!  that  is  an  unhappy  dependence;  yet  the  only 
one  we  have  at  present." 

''Washington's  old  friend,  Lord  Fairfax,"  says  Irving, 
had  "found  himself  no  longer  safe  in  his  rural  abode. 
Greenway  Court  was  in  the  midst  of  a  woodland  region, 
affording  a  covert  approach  for  the  stealthy  savage.  His 
lordship  was  considered  a  great  chief,  whose  scalp  would 
be  an  inestimable  trophy  for  an  Indian  warrior.  Fears 
were  entertained,  therefore,  by  his  friends,  that  an  attempt 
would  be  made  to  surprise  him  in  his  greenwood  castle. 
His  nephew.  Colonel  Martin  of  the  militia,  who  resided 
with  him,  suggested  the  expediency  of  a  removal  to  the 
lower  settlements,  beyond  Blue  Ridge.  The  high-spirited 
old  nobleman  demurred;  his  heart  cleaved  to  the  home 
which  he  had  formed  for  himself  in  the  wilderness.  'I 
am  an  old  man,'  said  he,  'and  it  is  of  little  importance 
whether  I  fall  by  the  tomahawk  or  die  of  disease  and  old 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  309 

age ;  but  you  are  young,  and,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  have  many 
years  before  you,  therefore  decide  for  us  both;  my  only 
fear  is,  that  if  we  retire,  the  whole  district  will  break  up 
and  take  to  flight ;  and  this  fine  country,  which  I  have  been 
at  such  cost  and  trouble  to  improve,  will  again  become 
a  wilderness.' 

"  Colonel  Martin  took  but  a  short  time  to  deliberate. 
He  knew  the  fearless  character  of  his  uncle,  and  perceived 
what  was  his  inclination.  He  considered  that  his  lordship 
had  numerous  retainers,  white  and  black,  with  hardy  hunts- 
men and  foresters  to  rally  round  him,  and  that  Greenway 
Court  was  at  no  great  distance  from  Winchester;  he  de- 
cided, therefore,  that  they  should  remain  and  abide  the 
course  of  events." 

To  Lord  Fairfax,  April  19th,  Washington  wrote : 

"  Unless  I  can  throw  some  ammunition  into  Edwards's 
Fort  to-night,  the  remainder  of  our  party,  and  the  inhab- 
itants that  are  there,  will  more  than  probably  fall  a  sacri- 
fice to  the  Indians,  as  the  bearer,  who  came  off  with  the 
enclosed,  assures  me  that  the  fort  was  surrounded,  and 
that  an  assault  was  expected  to-day."] 

They  had  waylaid  and  massacred  scouting  parties.  They 
had  attacked  forts.  In  a  skirmish  they  had  routed  a  party 
of  Americans  and  had  killed  Captain  Mercer.  They  had 
also  slain  other  military  officers,  and  they  had  robbed  and 
murdered  occupants  of  villages  and  plantations  but  a  few 
miles  from  large  towns,  and  even  within  twenty  miles  of 
the  Commander-in-Chief's  headquarters  at  Winchester. 

The  whole  frontier  of  Virginia  for  the  distance  of  more 
than  350  miles  was  exposed  to  the  encroachments  of  the 
savages.  And  the  sufferings  of  the  settlers,  throughout 
that  range  of  border  territory,  were  peculiarly  afflictive  at 
this  crisis.  Their  once  happy  homes  were  now  haunted  by 
continual  apprehensions  of  scenes  of  blood.    While  at  the 


310  WASHINGTON. 

plough  or  while  gathering  the  fruits  yielded  by  their 
orchards  or  gardens  they  were  liable  to  be  surprised  by  the 
demoniac  red  man,  seen  coming  at  a  distance,  or  discov- 
ered lurking  behind  trunks  of  trees,  or  crouching  in  high 
grass  and  among  underwood.  The  cheerful  harvest  song 
of  the  borderer  might,  at  any  moment,  be  interrupted  and 
hushed  by  the  Indian  whoop  or  yell.  And  the  engaging 
pictures  of  rural  domestic  life,  afforded  by  the  mother  at 
her  spinning-wheel  or  in  her  household  duties,  her  children 
in  their  gleeful  sports,  and  her  infant  in  the  cradle,  might 
suddenly  be  transformed  into  tragic  scenes  of  blood,  which 
none  but  fiends  in  the  human  form  could  have  the  heart 
to  create  or  could  look  upon  without  remorse. 

At  the  signal  of  Indians  coming  the  borderers  would 
sometimes  be  able  to  flee  unharmed,  but  it  was  to  surrender 
life's  comforts  and  often  common  necessaries.  They  might 
resort  for  protection,  as  they  frequently  did,  to  stockade 
forts,  but  there,  surrounded  by  their  pursuers,  they  were 
generally  reduced  to  extreme  thirst  and  hunger,  and  on  at- 
tempting to  escape  for  their  lives,  were  hunted  down  and 
slain.  And  to  these  evils  were  added  those  of  captivity 
and  torture,  for  the  fierce  and  bloodthirsty  red  man  of  the 
woods  seizes  ruthlessly  and  indiscriminately  men,  women, 
children,  and  even  tender  babes,  and,  not  content  with 
slaughter,  deHghts  at  times  in  protracted  merciless  cruelty, 
and  exults  at  shrieks  of  anguish  extorted  from  his  victims. 
The  want  of  suitable  legislative  measures  providing  for 
this  state  of  things  was  felt  and  lamented.  Unfurnished 
with  the  necessary  men  and  means  for  defense  the  com- 
mander-in-chief appealed  to  Governor  Dinwiddie  in  touch- 
ing terms.  In  one  of  his  appeals  he  uses  these  glowing 
words:  "  Your  honor  may  see  to  what  unhappy  straits  the 
distressed  inhabitants  and  myself  are  reduced.  I  am  too 
little  acquainted,  sir,  with  pathetic  language,  to  attempt  a 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  311 

description  of  the  people's  distresses,  though  I  have  a 
generous  soul  sensible  of  wrongs  and  swelling  for  redress. 
But  what  can  I  do?  If  bleeding,  dying!  would  glut  their 
insatiate  revenge,  I  would  be  a  willing  offering  to  savage 
fury,  and  die  by  inches  to  save  a  people.  I  see  their  situa- 
tion, know  their  danger,  and  participate  their  sufferings, 
without  having  it  in  my  power  to  give  them  further  relief 
than  uncertain  promises.  In  short,  I  see  inevitable  de- 
struction in  so  clear  a  light  that  unless  vigorous  measures 
are  taken  by  the  Assembly  and  speedy  assistance  sent 
from  below,  the  poor  inhabitants  that  are  now  in  forts 
must  unavoidably  fall  while  the  remainder  are  fleeing  be- 
fore the  barbarous  foe. 

"  In  fine,  the  melancholy  situation  of  the  people,  the 
little  prospect  of  assistance,  the  gross  and  scandalous 
abuse  cast  upon  the  officers  in  general,  which  is  reflecting 
upon  me  in  particular,  for  suffering  misconduct  of  such 
extraordinary  kinds,  and  the  distant  prospect,  if  any,  of 
gaining  honor  and  reputation  in  the  service,  cause  me  to 
lament  the  hour  that  gave  me  a  commission  and  would 
induce  me,  at  any  other  time  than  this  of  imminent  dan- 
ger, to  resign,  without  one  hesitating  moment,  a  command 
from  which  I  never  expect  to  reap  either  honor  or  benefit, 
but  on  the  contrary,  have  almost  an  absolute  certainty  of 
incurring  displeasure  below,  while  the  murder  of  helpless 
families  may  be  laid  to  my  account  here ! 

"  The  supplicating  tears  of  the  women,  and  moving  peti- 
tions of  the  men,  melt  me  into  such  deadly  sorrow  that  I 
solemnly  declare,  if  I  know  my  own  mind,  I  could  offer 
myself  a  willing  sacrifice  to  the  butchering  enemy,  provided 
that  would  contribute  to  the  people's  ease. 

["  Lord  Fairfax  has  ordered  men  from  the  adjacent 
counties,  but  when  they  will  come,  or  in  what  numbers,  I 
cannot  pretend  to  determine.    If  I  may  judge  from  the  sue- 


31^  .    WASHINGTON, 

cess  we  have  met  with  here,  I  have  but  little  hopes,  as 
three  days  incessant  endeavors  have  produced  but  20  men. 

"  I  have  too  often  urged  my  opinion  for  vigorous  meas- 
ures ;  therefore  I  shall  only  add,  that,  besides  the  accounts 
you  will  receive  in  the  letters,  we  are  told  from  all  parts 
that  the  woods  seem  to  be  alive  with  Indians,  who  feast 
upon  the  fat  of  the  land.  As  we  have  not  more  than  a 
barrel  or  two  of  powder  at  this  place  (Winchester),  the 
rest  being  at  Fort  Cumberland,  I  could  wish  your  Honor 
would  send  some  up.  I  have  written  to  Alexandria  and 
Fredericksburg,  desiring  that  two  barrels  may  be  sent 
from  each  place,  but  whether  there  is  any  at  either,  I 
know  not.  I  have  sent  orders  to  Captain  Harrison  to 
be  diligent  on  the  waters  where  he  is  posted,  and  to  use 
his  utmost  endeavors  to  protect  the  people;  and,  if  possi- 
ble, to  surprise  the  enemy  at  their  sleeping  places  Ashby's 
letter  is  a  very  extraordinary  one  (reporting  that  400  In- 
dians had  demanded  the  surrender  of  his  fort,  1500  had 
gone  to  Fort  Cumberland  and  2000  to  the  Juniata).  The 
design  of  the  Indians  was  only,  in  my  opinion,  to  intimi- 
date him  into  a  surrender.  For  which  reason  I  have  writ- 
ten him  word,  that  if  they  do  attack  him,  he  must  defend 
that  place  to  the  last  extremity,  and  when  he  is  bereft  of 
hope,  then  to  lay  a  train  to  blow  up  the  fort,  and  retire 
by  night  to  Fort  Cumberland.  A  small  fort,  which  we 
have  at  the  mouth  of  Patterson's  Creek,  containing  an 
officer  and  30  men  guarding  stores,  was  attacked  smartly 
by  the  French  and  Indians ;  they  were  as  warmly  received, 
upon  which  they  retired.  Our  men  at  present  are  dis- 
persed into  such  small  bodies,  guarding  the  people  and 
public  stores,  that  we  are  not  able  to  make,  or  even  form 
a  body."]* 

His  heartfelt  concern  for  the  people's  welfare  could  not 
*  Letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddie,  April  22,  1756. 


UFE  AND  TIMES.  313 

find  utterance  in  words  more  glowing.  He  was  willing  to 
surrender  his  life  for  their  sake.  Yet  at  the  very  period 
when  thus,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Roman  Decii,  he  was  in- 
dulging intense  emotions  of  self-sacrifice,  his  feelings  were 
subjected  to  a  severe  torture.  A  plot  was  formed  to  efTect 
his  removal  from  his  post.  Numerous  reports  to  the  dis- 
credit of  the  army,  the  officers,  and  the  commander,  were 
industriously  circulated  through  the  columns  of  a  news- 
paper. 

The  keen  sensibilities  of  the  commander  were  of  course 
deeply  wounded,  especially  as  the  authors  of  the  libelous 
reports  did  not  meet  with  prompt  rebukes  in  his  behalf. 
Indulging  the  noble  independence  of  his  mind  he  thought 
of  at  once  resigning  his  commission.  This  was  the  secret 
hope  of  his  calumniators.  But  it  was  doomed  to  bitter 
disappointment.  The  faction  which  sought  by  means  of 
his  retirement  and  of  their  favor  with  their  Scotch  country- 
man. Governor  Dinwiddie,  to  gain  rank  and  emolument, 
was  detected  and  rewarded  to  the  full  measure  with  deserved 
obloquy,  and  Colonel  Washington  gave  free  utterance  to 
such  sentiments  as  the  occasion  demanded  and  caused  his 
merits  to  shine  with  increased  luster.  Robinson,  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  said :  *'  Our  hopes. 
Dear  George,  are  all  fixed  on  you  for  bringing  our  affairs 
to  a  happy  issue.  Consider  of  what  fatal  consequences 
to  your  country  your  resigning  the  command  at  this  time 
may  be;  more  especially  as  there  is  no  doubt  that  most 
of  the  officers  would  follow  your  example.  I  hope  you 
will  allow  your  ruling  passion,  the  love  of  your  country, 
to  stifle  your  resentment  at  least  till  the  arrival  of  Lord 
Loudoun,  or  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  when  you 
may  be  sure  of  having  justice  done.  Who  those  of 
your  pretended  friends  are  who  give  credit  to  the  ma- 
licious reflections  in  that  scandalous  libel  I  assure  you  I 


314  WASHINGTON. 

am  ignorant;  and  I  do  declare  that  I  never  heard  any  man 
of  honor  or  reputation  speak  the  least  disrespectful  of  you, 
or  censure  your  conduct,  and  there  is  no  well-wisher  of  his 
country  that  would  not  be  greatly  concerned  to  hear  of 
your  resigning." 

An  affectionate  friend  wrote  to  him :  "  You  cannot  but 
know  that  nothing  but  want  of  power  in  your  country  has 
prevented  it  from  adding  every  honor  and  reward  that  per- 
fect merit  could  have  entitled  itself  to.  How  are  we  grieved 
to  hear  Col.  George  Washington  hinting  to  his  country 
that  he  is  willing  to  retire!  Give  me  leave,  as  your  most 
intimate  friend,  to  persuade  you  to  forget  that  anything 
has  been  said  to  your  dishonor;  and  recollect  that  it  could 
not  have  come  from  any  man  that  knew  you.  And  as  it 
may  have  been  the  artifice  of  one  in  no  esteem  among  your 
countrymen  to  raise  in  you  such  unjust  suspicions  as  would 
induce  you  to  desert  the  cause  that  his  own  preferment 
might  meet  with  no  obstacle,  I  am  confident  you  will 
endeavor  to  give  us  the  good  effects,  not  only  of  duty  but 
of  great  cheerfulness  and  satisfaction  in  such  a  service. 
No,  sir;  rather  let  Braddock's  bed  be  your  aim  than  any- 
thing that  might  discolor  those  laurels  which  I  promise 
myself  are  kept  in  store  for  you."* 

Another  friend  wrote :  "  From  my  constant  attendance 
in  the  House  (of  Burgesses),  I  can  with  great  truth  say, 
I  never  heard  your  conduct  questioned.  Whenever  you 
are  mentioned,  it  is  with  the  greatest  respect.  Your  or- 
ders and  instructions  appear  in  a  light  worthy  of  the  most 
experienced  officer.  I  can  assure  you  that  a  very  great 
majority  of  the  House  prefer  you  to  any  other  person." 

Colonel  William  Fairfax,  a  member  of  the  Governor's 
council,  thus  eloquently  appealed  to  him  :  "  Your  endeavors 
in  the  service  and  defense  of  your  country  must  redound 

*  Letter  from  Landon  Carter. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  315 

to  your  honor;  therefore  do  not  let  any  unavoidable  inter- 
ruptions sicken  your  mind  in  the  attempts  you  may  pursue. 
Your  good  health  and  fortune  are  the  toast  of  every  table. 
Among  the  Romans,  such  a  general  acclamation  and  pub- 
lic regard,  shown  to  any  of  their  chieftains,  were  always 
esteemed  a  high  honor  and  gratefully  accepted."* 

[Sparks  says  of  this  plot  against  Washington:  **^The 
Governor,  being  a  Scotchman,  was  surrounded  by  a  knot 
of  Caledonian  friends,  who  wished  to  profit  by  this  alli- 
ance, and  obtain  for  themselves  a  larger  share  of  consid- 
eration than  they  could  command  in  the  present  order  of 
things.  The  discontented,  and  such  as  thought  their 
merits  undervalued,  naturally  fell  into  this  faction.  To 
create  dissatisfaction  in  the  army,  and  cause  the  officers 
to  resign  from  disgust,  would  not  only  distract  the  coun- 
sels of  the  ruling  party,  but  make  room  for  new  promo- 
tions. Colonel  Innes,  the  governor's  favorite,  would 
ascend  to  the  chief  command,  and  the  subordinate  places 
would  be  reserved  for  his  adherents.  Hence  false  rumors 
were  set  afloat,  and  the  pen  of  detraction  was  busy  to  dis- 
seminate them.  Stories  were  circulated  to  the  disparage- 
ment of  the  army,  charging  the  officers  with  gross  irregu- 
larities and  neglect  of  duty,  and  indirectly  throwing  the 
blame  upon  the  commander.  A  malicious  person  filled  a 
gazette  with  tales  of  this  sort,  which  seemed  for  the  mo- 
ment to  receive  public  countenance.  But  the  artifice  was 
easily  seen  through,  and  its  aims  were  defeated,  by  the 
leaders  on  the  patriotic  side,  who  looked  to  Colonel  Wash- 
ington as  a  pillar  of  support  to  their  cause."] 

These  powerful  appeals  addressed  to  the  noble  and  gen- 
erous mind  of  Washington  could  not  fail  of  success.  He 
continued  in  his  office.  And  he  was  even  cheered  to  pur- 
sue its  duties  with  increased  alacrity. 

*  Letter  to  Washington, 


316  WASHINGTON. 

At  this  time  (1756)  the  Assembly  resolved  to  increase 
the  army  to  1,500  men  and  to  estabHsh  a  Hne  of  twenty- 
three  forts  which,  extending  from  the  Potomac  to  North 
CaroHna,  would  constitute  a  frontier  defense  for  about  300 
miles.  But  this,  in  the  opinion  of  the  commander,  was  an 
inadequate  provision  for  the  existing  exigency.  He  urged 
the  House  of  Burgesses  to  increase  the  army  to  2,000  men. 
He  pointed  to  the  great  extent  of  the  frontier  to  be  pro- 
tected; he  pointed  to  the  forts  which  required  to  be  gar- 
risoned; and  he  pointed  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  border 
country  retiring  before  the  enemy  until  they  were  about 
even  to  cross  the  Blue  Ridge. 

The  powerful  eloquence  of  his  appeal  was  not  without 
effect.  There  prevailed  a  general  and  intense  feeling.  The 
Burgesses  requested  the  Governor  to  summon  half  the 
militia  of  the  adjoining  counties  to  co-operate  in  meeting 
the  fearful  emergency.  And  the  Attorney-General,  Mr. 
Peyton  Randolph,  in  the  ardor  of  his  military  zeal  on  the 
occasion,  formed  a  company  of  100  gentlemen  to  act  as 
volunteers  in  the  approaching  campaign.  His  conduct  was 
an  expressive  indication  of  the  spirit  of  the  times.  But  the 
measure  which  he  adopted  was  evidently  far  more  credit- 
able to  his  heart  than  to  his  head.  Judge  Marshall,  allud- 
ing to  the  incident,  very  judidiously  observes  "  Ten  well- 
trained  woodsmen  or  Indians  would  have  rendered  more 
service." 

The  House  of  Burgesses'  scheme  to  establish  a  line  of 
forts  from  the  Potomac  to  North  Carolina  was  disapproved 
of  by  the  Governor.  Washington,  also,  for  reasons  which 
he  assigned,  preferred  a  few  strong  to  many  feeble  gar- 
risons ;  yet  in  obedience  to  the  Assembly's  will  he  planned 
and  constructed  the  proposed  military  works.  In  doing 
this  however  he  encountered  many  and  perplexing  annoy- 
ances, arising  chiefly  from   Governor  Dinwiddie's  exer- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  317 

cise  of  his  prerogative  in  military  matters,  and  from  the 
Governor  of  Maryland's  deranging  the  Virginia  Assembly's 
plans. 

To  provide  eflfectually  for  relief  from  all  existing  evils 
Washington  sent  a  full  narrative  of  the  state  of  things  to 
the  Earl  of  Loudoun,  who  had  succeeded  General  Shirley 
as  commander-in-chief,  and  was  then  at  New  York.  It 
was  the  first  intention  of  Lord  Loudoun  to  go  to  Virginia. 
This  intention  however  he  did  not  fulfill.  But  he  held  at 
Philadelphia  a  meeting  of  the  Governors  of  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia.  Washington,  who 
was  present  at  the  meeting,  was  favorably  regarded  by  the 
Governors  in  their  consultations. 

It  was  his  wish  that  the  Virginia  troops  should  be  put 
upon  the  regular  establishment  and  that  he  and  his  officers 
should  hold  royal  commissions.  In  this  wish  however  he 
was  disappointed;  yet,  by  an  arrangement  agreeable  to 
him,  he  and  all  the  provincial  officers  not  comprehended 
in  the  northern  army,  were  to  conduct  their  operations 
under  the  general  orders  of  Colonel  Stanwix,  an  accom- 
plished British  officer  stationed  in  the  interior  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  mid- 
dle and  southern  provinces. 

The  thoughts  of  the  Governors  were  directed  particu- 
larly toward  Canada  and  the  northern  lakes,  and  they  re- 
solved to  take  no  ofifensive  measures  in  the  South.  Fort 
Cumberland,  being  situated  in  Maryland,  they  agreed  to 
commit  to  that  province's  keeping.  The  defense  of  Vir- 
ginia against  savages  was  to  be  provided  for  by  Colonel 
Stanwix. 

It  was  a  welcome  communication  which  Washington  re- 
ceived from  Governor  Dinwiddie,  instructing  him  to  look 
to  the  British  colonel  for  orders.  "  Colonel  Stanwix,"  said 
the  Governor,  "  being  appointed  commander-in-chief,  you 


318  WASHINGTON. 

must  submit  to  his  orders  without  regard  to  any  you  may 
receive  from  me;  he  being  near  the  place  can  direct  affairs 
better  than  I  can." 

The  intercourse  of  Washington  with  this  accompHshed 
mihtary  officer  was  always  of  the  most  agreeable  nature. 
Colonel  Stanwix  was  a  gentlemen  of  education  and  refine- 
ment. He  was  promoted  in  the  year  1758  to  the  rank  of 
brigadier-general,  and,  being  sent  to  an  important  post  at 
the  head  of  boat  navigation  on  the  Mohawk,  he  built  a 
fort  there,  called,  in  honor  of  his  name.  Fort  Stanwix. 
This  military  work,  afterward  called  Fort  Schuyler,  was 
greatly  celebrated  during  the  Revolutionary  War. 

[The  extraordinary  interest  and  importance  of  the  pas- 
sage in  Washington's  life  covering  his  military  service  on 
the  frontiers  to  the  west  and  northwest  of  Virginia,  are 
very  inadequately  shown  by  any  narrative  of  the  general 
facts,  without  large  reproduction  of  his  own  account  of 
particulars.  The  interest,  in  fact,  of  what  he  said,  in  vari- 
ous letters  and  elaborate  communications,  far  exceeds 
that  of  anything  that  was  done,  and  it  is  most  surprising 
that  no  story  of  the  years  1756  and  1757,  in  his  own  words, 
has  ever  been  attempted.  That  story  we  add  here  as 
of  the  greatest  importance  for  knowledge  of  Washington 
at  24  and  25  years  of  age. 

April  24,  1756,  Washington  wrote  from  Winchester  to 
Governor  Dinwiddle: 

"  Not  an  hour,  nay  scarcely  a  minute  passes,  that  does 
not  produce  fresh  alarms  and  melancholy  accounts;  so 
that  I  am  distracted  what  to  do.  Nor  is  it  possible  for 
me  to  give  the  people  the  necessary  assistance  for  their 
defense,  upon  account  of  the  small  number  we  have,  or 
are  likely  to  be  here  for  some  time.  The  inhabitants  are 
removing  daily,  and  in  a  short  time  will  leave  this  county 
as  desolate  as  Hampshire,  where  scarce  a  family  lives. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  319 

"  Three  families  were  murdered  the  night  before  last 
within  12  miles  from  this  place;  and  every  day  we  have 
accounts  of  such  cruelties  and  barbarities  as  are  shocking 
to  human  nature.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  conceive  the  situa- 
tion of  this  miserable  country.  Such  numbers  of  French 
and  Indians  are  all  around,  no  road  is  safe  to  travel; 
and  here  we  know  not  the  hour  how  soon  we  may  be 
attacked. 

"  I  have  written  for  the  militia  of  Fairfax,  Prince  Wil- 
liam, and  Culpeper  (counties),  and  expect  them  here  in 
a  very  few  days.  But  how  they  are  to  be  supplied  with 
ammunition  and  provision,  I  am  quite  at  a  loss.  The 
distance  of  Fort  Cumberland  from^  us,  where  these  sup- 
plies are,  renders  them  useless,  in  a  manner,  and  puts 
us  to  the  greatest  straits;  and  the  inhabitants  leaving  their 
farms  will  make  it  impossible  for  the  militia  to  subsist 
without  provisions,  which  are  now  very  scarce,  and  will 
be  more  so.  I  should  therefore  be  glad  your  Honor 
would  send  up  arms,  ammunition,  and  provisions,  and 
give  immediate  orders  for  the  Irish  beef  at  Alexandria, 
which  cannot  be  had  without  your  consent. 

"  Your  Honor  spoke  of  sending  some  Indians  to  our 
assistance,  in  which  no  time  should  be  lost,  nor  means 
omitted  to  engage  all  the  Catawbas  and  Qierokees  that 
can  possibly  be  gathered  together,  and  immediately  dis- 
patched hither.  For  without  Indians  to  oppose  Indians, 
we  may  expect  but  small  success.  And  I  should  think 
it  no  bad  scheme,  (while  the  Indians  remain  here  in  such 
numbers,)  to  have  a  detachment  sent  out  with  some 
friendly  Indians  to  make  an  attempt  upon  their  towns, — 
though  this  should  be  executed  with  all  imaginable  secrecy. 

**I  have  been  just  now  informed,  that  numbers  about 
the  neighborhood  hold  councils  and  cabals  to  very  dis- 
honorable purposes,  and  unworthy  the  thoughts  of  a  Brit- 


320  WASHINGTON. 

ish  subject.  Despairing  of  assistance  and  protection  from 
below  (as  they  foolishly  conjecture),  they  talk  of  capitu- 
lating and  coming  upon  terms  with  the  French  and 
Indians,  rather  than  lose  their  lives  and  fortunes  through 
obstinacy.  My  force,  at  present,  is  very  weak,  and  un- 
able to  take  the  necessary  measures  with  those  suspected; 
but,  as  soon  as  the  militia  arrive,  be  assured  I  will  do 
my  utmost  to  detect  and  secure  such  pests  of  society, 
if  my  information  is  not  groundless,  which  I  should  be 
pleased  to   tind  so." 

Reporting  that  a  council  of  war  had  determined  that 
"  Enoch's  "  fort  should  be  abandoned  and  that  all  of  the 
garrison  possible  to  be  spared  at  Fort  Edwards  should 
march  to  Winchester;  and  also  that  there  had  been  a 
fight  with  the  French  and  Indians  at  Fort  Hopewell,  on 
the  South  Branch,  with  the  waters  so  high  that  assist- 
ance could  not  be  sent, —  Washington  added: 

"  From  these  and  other  circumstances,  you  may  form 
but  a  faint  idea  of  the  wretched  and  unhappy  situation 
of  this  country,  nor  can  it  be  conceived. 

"  My  extreme  hurry,  confusion,  and  anxiety  must 
plead  an  excuse  for  incorrectness,  &c." 

To  John  Robinson,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
an  ardent  friend,  and  the  recognized  political  chief  of  the 
colony,  Washington  wrote  the  same  day,  from  Winchester: 

"  The  deplorable  situation  of  this  people  is  no  more 
to  be  described  than  mty  anxiety  and  uneasiness  for  their 
relief.  And  I  see  in  so  clear  a  light  the  inevitable  de- 
struction of  this  county  without  immediate  assistance, 
that  I  cannot  look  forward  but  with  the  most  poignant 
sorrow. 

"You  may  expect,  by  the  time  this  comes  to  hand, 
that,  without  a  considerable  reinforcement,  Frederick 
county  will  not  be  mistress  of  fifteen  families.     They  are 


SAMUEL  ADAMS. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  321 

now  retreating  to  the  securest  parts  in  droves  of  fifties. 
In  short,  everything  has  too  melancholy  an  appearance 
for  pen  to  communicate.  I  have  therefore  sent  an  officer, 
whose  good  sense  and  judicious  observations  will  be  a 
more  effectual  way  of  transmitting  an  account  of  the  peo- 
ple's distresses. 

"  I  wish  the  Assembly  had  given  2000  men,  instead  of 
1500,  and  that  I  had  been  acquainted  with  the  dispositions 
they  intended  to  make.  Since  I  am  ignorant  of  this,  I 
hope  it  will  not  be  thought  presuming  when  I  offer  my 
sentiments  upon  the  subject. 

"  We  are.  Sir,  first  to  consider,  that  if  a  chain  of  forts 
is  to  be  erected  upon  our  frontiers,  it  is  done  with  a  de- 
sign to  protect  the  people.  Therefore,  if  these  forts  are 
more  than  15  and  18  miles,  or  a  day's  march,  asunder,  and 
garrisoned  with  less  than  80  or  100  men  each,  the  intention 
is  lost,  and  for  these  reasons,  ist,  if  they  are  greater  dis- 
tances, it  is  inconvenient  for  the  soldiers  to  scout,  and 
allows  the  enemy  to  pass  between  without  being  easily  dis- 
covered, and  when  discovered  so  soon  pursued.  And  sec- 
ondly, if  they  are  garrisoned  with  less  than  80  or  100  men 
each,  the  number  will  be  too  few  to  afford  detachments. 
Then,  again,  our  frontiers  are  so  extensive,  that,  were  the 
enemy  to  attack  us  on  the  one  side,  before  the  trocp?  on 
the  other  could  get  to  their  assistance,  they  might  overrun 
and  destroy  half  the  country.  And  it  is  more  than  proba- 
ble, if  they  had  a  design  upon  the  first,  they  would  make 
a  feint  upon  the  other.  Then  we  are  to  consider  what 
sums  the  building  of  20  forts  would  cost,  and  the  remov- 
ing stores  and  provisions  to  each;  and  in  the  last  place, 
we  are  to  consider  where  and  when  this  expense  is  to 
end.  For,  if  we  do  not  endeavor  to  remove  the  cause, 
we  are  as  Hable  to  the  same  incursions  seven  years  hence 
21 


322  WASHINGTON, 

as  now,  if  the  war  continues,  and  they  are  allowed  to  re- 
main on  the  Ohio. 

"  I  shall  next  give  the  reasons,  which  I  think  make 
for  a  defensive  plan.  If  the  neighboring  Colonies  refuse 
us  their  assistance,  we  have  neither  strength  or  abilities 
of  ourselves  to  conduct  an  expedition;  or,  if  we  had,  and 
were  the  whole  to  join  us,  I  do  not  see  to  what  pur- 
pose, since  we  have  neither  a  train  of  artillery,  artillery- 
men, engineers,  &c.,  to  execute  any  scheme  beyond  the 
mountains  against  a  regular  fortress.  Again,  we  have 
not,  that  I  can  see  either  stores  or  provisions,  arms  or 
ammunition,  wagons  or  horses,  in  any  degree  propor- 
tioned to  the  service;  and  to  undertake  an  affair,  where 
we  are  sure  to  fall  through,  would  be  productive  of  the 
worst  consequences,  and  another  defeat  would  entirely 
lose  us  the  interest  of  every  Indian. 

"  If,  then,  we  cannot  act  offensively  with  a  prospect 
of  success,  we  must  be  upon  the  defensive;  and  that  there 
is  no  way  to  protect  the  people,  or  save  ourselves,  but 
by  a  chain  of  forts,  is  evidently  certain. 

"  I  would  beg  leave,  in  that  case,  to  propose  that  there 
should  be  a  strong  fort  erected  at  this  place  (Winches- 
ter) for  a  general  receptacle  of  all  the  stores,  &c.,  and 
a  place  of  residence  for  the  commanding  officers,  to  be 
garrisoned  with  one  company  for  the  security  of  the 
stores,  and  to  serve  as  escorts  for  all  wagons  that  are 
going  higher  up,  because  it  is  the  most  public  and  most 
convenient  for  intelligence  of  any  in  the  country,  and  the 
most  convenient  to  the  part  that  will  ever  be  attacked  by 
numbers,  it  lying  directly  on  the  road  to  Fort  Duquesne, 
from  whence,  and  their  Indian  allies,  who  are  still  higher 
up,  we  have  the  greatest  reason  to  apprehend  danger.  It 
also  lies  convenient  to  the  inhabitants  for  raising  the  mili- 
tia when  occasion  requires. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  323 

"  I  have  found  by  experience,  that  being  just  within  the 
inhabitants  is  absolutely  necessary  to  give  orders  for  the 
defense  of  the  people;  and  that  Fort  Cumberland  is  of  no 
more  use  towards  the  defence  of  the  country  than  Fort 
George  at  Hampton,  and  know  as  little  what  is  doing, 
For  the  people  so  soon  as  they  are  alarmed,  immediately 
fly  towards,  and  at  this  time  there  is  not  an  inhabitant 
living  between  here  and  Fort  Cumberland,  except  a  few 
settlements  upon  the  Manor  about  a  fort  we  built  there, 
and  a  few  families  at  Edwards's,  on  Cacapehon,  with  a 
guard  of  ours;  which  makes  this  very  town  at  present  the 
outmost  frontiers,  and  though  a  place  trifling  in  itself, 
is  yet  of  the  utmost  importance,  as  it  commands  the  com- 
munication from  east  to  west,  as  well  as  from  north  to 
south;  for  at  this  place  do  almost  all  the  roads  center; 
and  secures  the  great  roads  of  one  half  of  our  frontiers 
to  the  markets  of  the  neighboring  colonies,  as  well  as 
to  those  on  Rappahannock  and  Potomack.  At  Fort  Cum- 
berland I  would  have  one  company  garrisoned  to  secure 
the  place,  to  procure  the  earliest  intelligence,  and  to  cover 
all  detachments  that  may  be  sent  towards  the  Ohio, 
which  is  all  the  use  that  it  can  ever  be  of.  In  the  next 
place,  I  would  propose,  that  a  good  fort  should  be  erected 
between  this  and  Fort  Cumberland,  which  shall  be  in  a 
line  with  the  chain  of  forts  across  the  country,  and  be 
garrisoned  with  two  companies.  This  I  would  advise, 
because,  as  I  before  observed,  if  we  are  ever  attacked 
by  a  large  body,  it  must  be  here,  as  they  have  no  other 
road  to  our  frontiers,  either  to  transport  men  or  neces- 
saries. 

"  These  three  forts  that  I  have  already  spoken  of  will  em- 
ploy four  companies,  which  will  be  a  tolerable  body,  if  the 
companies  are  large,  which  they  would  be  according  to  the 
plan  I  sent  you.     And  it  would  be  a  trifling  expense  to 


324  WASHINGTON. 

augment  each  company  to  lOO  privates,  which  will  make 
2000  exclusive  of  officers,  which  were  included  in  the 
scheme  last  sent. 

"  After  this  is  done,  I  would  post  the  remaining  com- 
panies equidistant,  or  at  proper  passes,  along  our  fron- 
tiers, agreeable  to  the  enclosed  sketch,  and  order  com- 
munications to  be  opened  between  fort  and  fort,  and  large 
detachments  scouting  to  discover  the  tracks  of  the  enemy. 

"  And  now,  Sir,  one  thing  to  add,  which  requires  the 
Assembly's  attention,  and  that  is,  in  what  vale,  or  upon 
what  part  of  our  frontiers  these  forts  are  to  be  built? 
For  I  am  to  tell  you  that  the  Great  Ridge  or  North  Moun- 
tain, so  called  in  Evans's  map,  to  which  I  refer,  is  now 
become  our  exterior  bound,  there  not  being  one  inhabitant 
beyond  that  on  all  the  Potomack  waters,  except  a  few 
families  on  the  South  Branch,  and  at  Joseph  Edwards's, 
on  Cacapehon,  guarded  by  a  party  of  ours.  So  that  it 
requires  some  consideration  to  determine  whether  we  are 
to  build  near  this  to  protect  the  present  inhabitants;  or 
on  the  South  Branch,  or  Patterson's  Creek,  in  the  hopes 
of  drawing  back  those  who  have  forsaken  their  dwellings. 

"  If  we  do  not  build  there,  that  country  will  ever  want 
settlers;  and  if  we  do,  there  is  so  great  a  blank,  with  such 
a  series  of  mountains  between,  that  it  will  be  next  to  im- 
possible to  guard  the  people  effectually.  I  could  again 
wish  that  the  Assembly  had  given  2000  men,  exclusive  of 
officers,  to  be  formed  into  two  battalions  of  ten  companies 
each,  with  four  field  officers.  Indeed,  1500  men  are  a 
greater  number  than  ever  was  in  a  regiment  of  only  one 
battalion,  and  they  should  be  divided  into  two,  with  four 
field  officers,  who  should  be  posted  so  as  to  have  the  im- 
mediate care  of  a  certain  number  of  forts,  with  orders  to 
draw  from  one  to  another,  as  occasion  should  require. 

"  I  could  add  more  on  this  subject,  but  I  am  so  hurried 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  325 

that  I  am  obliged  to  refer  for  further  particulars  to  the 
bearer,  who  will  tell  you  that,  to  carry  on  all  these  works, 
a  number  of  tools,  as  well  as  many  other  necessaries,  will 
be  absolutely  wanted. 

"  I  have  given  my  opinion  with  candor,  and  submit  to 
correction  with  the  greatest  pleasure.  Confusion  and 
hurry  must  apoligize  for  the  incoherence  and  incorrect- 
ness hereof." 

In  the  same  letter  to  Robinson,  Washington  said: 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  the  reflections  upon  the  conduct 
of  the  officers.  I  could  wish  that  their  names  had  been 
particularized,  that  justice  might  be  done  to  the  inno- 
cent and  guilty!  for  it  is  extremely  hard,  that  the  whole 
corps  should  suffer  the  most  ungenteel  reproaches  for  the 
inadvertence  and  misconduct  of  a  few." 

The  orders  of  Washington  were  as  strict  as  language 
could  make  them,  and  as  severe  in  the  penalties  threat- 
ened as  could  be  ventured.  A  soldier  found  drunk  was 
liable  to  lOO  lashes,  and  one  presuming  to  quarrel  or 
fight  to  500  lashes, —  a  figure  more  meant  for  terror  by 
threat  than  for   execution. 

April  27,  1756,  in  a  second  letter  to  Robinson,  Wash- 
ington added  further  observations  on  the  defense  of  the 
frontiers  by  a  chain  of  forts.     Thus  he  said: 

'*  If  the  province  of  Maryland  makes  no  provision  for 
its  frontiers,  we  shall  have  a  long,  unguarded  space  quite 
open  and  defenceless  from  Wills  Creek  to  the  mouth  of 
Shanandoah,  where  the  enemy  may  have,  and  have  already 
given  proof  of,  free  egress  and  regress  in  crossing  Poto- 
mack;  plundering,  burning,  murdering  and  destroying  all 
before  them.  It  is  matter  of  moment,  and  worthy  the 
Assembly's  notice.  For  we  must  secure  that  weak  side, 
if  our  neighbors  are  so  indifferent  as  to  disregard  their 
own  safety,  because  of  its  connexion  with  ours.     In  this 


326  WASHINGTON. 

case  the  number  of  forts  will  be  increased  to  two  or  three 
more.  Another  material  point  to  be  regarded  by  the  As- 
sembly, and  of  very  great  importance  to  the  inhabitants, 
is  the  situation  of  these  forts  intended  along  the  frontiers. 
As  I  mentioned  to  you  before,  placing  them  on  the  for- 
mer utmost  frontiers  would  be  of  small  service  to  defend 
the  present  frontier  settlements,  now  so  remote  from  the 
former. 

'*  I  would  again  urge  the  necessity  of  a  large  and  strong 
fort  at  this  town.  It  being  the  center  of  all  the  public 
roads,  it  will  be  the  sole  refuge  for  the  inhabitants  upon 
any  alarm.  Had  such  a  place  of  defence  been  here,  it 
would  have  hindered  some  hundreds  of  famiHes  from  mov- 
ing further  than  this  that  are  now  lost  to  the  country. 
The  women  and  children  might  have  been  secure,  while 
the  men  would  have  gone  in  a  body  against  the  savages, 
whereas  the  number  of  men  now  left  is  so  small  that  no 
assistance  or  defence  can  be  made  to  any  purpose.  Win- 
chester is  now  the  farthest  boundary  of  this  county  —  no 
inhabitants  beyond  it;  and  if  measures  are  not  taken  to 
maintain  it,  we  must  retire  below  the  Blue  Ridge  in  a 
very  short  time.  Should  this  panic  and  fear  continue, 
not  a  soul  will  be  left  on  this  side  the  Ridge;  and  what 
now  remain  are  collected  in  small  forts  (out  of  which 
there  is  no  prevailing  on  them  to  stir)  and  every  planta- 
tion deserted. 

**  I  have  exerted  every  power  for  the  protection  and 
peace  of  this  distressed,  unhappy  people,  and  used  my 
utmost  to  persuade  them  to  continue,  until  assistance 
come,  though  to  little  efifect.  I  have  repeatedly  urged 
Lord  Fairfax  to  send  for  the  miHtia  of  the  adjacent  coun- 
ties, and  have  sent  myself  several  expresses  to  hurry 
them  on." 

In  pursuance  of  the  urgent  advice  thus  given,  a  fort 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  327 

was  ordered  to  be  built  at  Winchester  for  the  defense  of 
Frederick  county.  Another  letter  of  the  same  date  (April 
27,  1756),  addressed  to  Governor  Dinwiddie,  Washing- 
ton said: 

''  Desolation  and  murder  still  increase,  and  no  pros- 
pects of  relief.  The  Blue  Ridge  is  now  our  frontier,  no 
men  being  left  in  this  county,  except  a  few  that  keep  close 
with  a  number  of  women  and  children  in  forts,  which 
they  have  erected  for  that  purpose.  There  are  now  no 
militia  in  this  county;  when  there  were  they  could  not 
be  brought  to  action.  If  the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent 
counties  pursue  the  same  system  of  disobedience,  the 
whole  must  fall  an  inevitable  sacrifice;  and  there  is  room 
to  fear  they  have  caught  the  infection,  since  I  have  sent 
(besides  divers  letters  to  Lord  Fairfax)  express  after  ex- 
press to  hurry  them  on,  and  yet  have  no  tidings  of  their 
march.  We  have  the  greatest  reason  to  believe  that  the 
number  of  the  enemy  is  very  considerable,  and  as  they  are 
spread  all  over  this  part  of  the  country;  and  that  their 
success,  and  the  spoils  with  which  they  have  enriched 
themselves,  dished  up  with  a  good  deal  of  French  policy, 
will  encourage  the  Indians  of  distant  nations  to  fall  upon 
our  inhabitants  in  greater  numbers,  and,  if  possible,  with 
greater  rapidity.  They  enjoy  the  sweets  of  a  profitable 
war,  and  will  no  doubt  improve  the  success  which  ever 
must  attend  their  arms,  without  we  have  Indians  to  op- 
pose theirs.  I  would  therefore  advise,  as  I  often  have 
done,  that  there  should  be  neither  trouble  nor  expense 
omitted  to  bring  the  few  who  are  still  inclined  into  our 
service,  and  that  too  with  the  greatest  care  and  expedition. 
A  small  number,  just  to  point  out  the  wiles  and  tracks  of 
the  enemy,  is  better  than  none;  for  which  reason  I  must 
earnestly  recommend  that  those  who  accompanied  Major 
Lewis  should  be  immediately  sent  up,  and  such  of  the 


328  WASHINGTON. 

Catawbas  as  can  be  engaged  in  our  interest.  If  such  an- 
other torrent  as  this  has  been,  (or  may  be  ere  it  is  done,) 
should  press  upon  our  settlements,  there  will  not  be  a 
living  creature  left  in  Frederick  county;  and  how  soon 
Fairfax  and  Prince  William  may  share  its  fate  is  easily 
conceived,  if  we  only  consider  a  cruel  and  bloodthirsty 
enemy,  conquerors  already  possessed  of  the  finest  parts 
of  Virginia,  plenteously  filled  with  all  kinds  of  provisions, 
pursuing  a  people  overcome  with  fear  and  consternation 
at  the  inhuman  murders  of  these  barbarous  savages. 

"  The  inhabitants,  who  are  now  in  forts,  are  greatly 
distressed  for  the  want  of  ammunition  and  provision,  and 
are  incessantly  importuning  me  for  both;  neither  of  which 
have  I  at  this  place  to  spare.  To  hear  the  cries  of  the 
hungry,  who  have  fled  for  refuge  to  these  places,  with 
nothing  more  than  they  carry  on  their  backs,  is  exceed- 
ingly moving. 

"  I  have  been  formerly,  and  am  at  present,  pretty  full 
in  offering  my  opmion  and  counsel  upon  matters  which 
regard  the  public  interest  and  safety.  These  have  been 
solely  the  object  of  all  my  thoughts,  words,  and  actions; 
and,  in  order  to  avoid  censure  in  every  part  of  my  con- 
duct, I  make  it  a  rule  to  obey  the  dictates  of  your  Honor, 
the  Assembly,  and  a  good  conscience." 

May  3,  1756,  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Din- 
widdle from  Winchester: 

''  We  have  some  reason  to  believe  the  Indians  are  re- 
turned to  Fort  Duquesne,  as  some  scouts  from  Fort  Cum- 
berland saw  their  tracks  that  way;  and  many  corroborat- 
ing accounts  affirm  that  the  roads  over  the  Alleghaney 
mountains  are  as  much  beaten  as  they  were  last  year  by 
General  Braddock's  army.  From  these  and  other  cir- 
cumstances we  may  judge  their  numbers  were  considera- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  329 

ble.  Whether  they  are  gone  for  the  season,  or  only  to 
bring  in  a  larger  party,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  determine. 

"  Though  I  have  often  troubled  you  on  this  head,  I 
must  again  beg  leave  to  desire  your  particular  instruc- 
tions, and  information  of  what  is  to  be  done,  as,  being 
in  a  state  of  uncertainty,  without  knowing  the  plan  of 
operations,  or  what  scheme  to  go  upon,  reduces  me  to 
the  greatest  straits,  and  leaves  me  to  guess  at  everything. 
Orders  that  are  absolutely  necessary  to  be  despatched  to 
the  officers  one  day,  appear  the  next  as  necessary  to  be 
contradicted.  *  *  *  So  much  am  I  kept  in  the  dark 
that  I  do  not  know  whether  to  prepare  for  the  offensive 
or  defensive;  and  what  might  be  absolutely  necessary  in 
the  one  would  be  quite  useless  in  the  other. 

"  There  are  now  in  town  about  150  of  the  Fairfax  mili- 
tia; 300  are  expected  from  Prince  William;  and  with  the 
soldiers  and  militia  now  here,  I  intend  to  go  out  and 
scour  the  woods  hereabouts  for  three  or  four  days  until 
the  others  arrive. 

"  I  want  very  much  to  go  to  Fort  Cumberland  to  regu- 
late affairs  there,  but  fear  I  cannot  spare  time,  as  my 
presence  will  be  very  necessary  here. 

*'  Clothes  for  the  men  are  very  much  wanted.  There 
are  none  in  store,  and  some  men,  who  have  been  en- 
listed these  two  months,  to  whom  we  could  give  nothing 
but  a  blanket,  shoes,  and  shirt,  are  justly  dissatisfied  at 
having  two  pence  per  day  stopped  from  them  [out  of  a 
wage  of  eight  pence  per  day,  the  purpose  being  to  pay 
for  clothes].  Provision  here  is  scarce,  and  the  commis- 
sary much  wanted  to  lay  in  more.  I  have  been,  and  still 
am,  obliged  to  do  this  duty,  as  well  as  most  others,  which 
I  would  take  upon  me,  rather  than  let  anything  be  want- 
ing for  the  good  of  the  country,  which  I  could  do." 

Colonel    William    Fairfax,   Washington's    early   friend, 


330  WASHINGTON. 

wrote  to  him  at  this  time  in  regard  to  the  trouble  he  had 
with  the  mihtia  assembled  at  Winchester: 

"  I  am  sensible  that  such  a  medley  of  undisciplined  mili- 
tia must  create  you  various  troubles,  but,  having  Caesar's 
Commentaries,  and  perhaps  Quintus  Curtius,  you  have 
therein  read  of  greater  fatigues,  murmurings,  mutinies, 
and  defections,  than  will  probably  come  to  your  share; 
though,  if  any  of  those  casualties  should  interrupt  your 
quiet,  I  doubt  not  you  would  bear  them  with  a  magnanim- 
ity equal  to  that  of  any  of  the  heroes  of  those  times.  The 
Council  and  Burgesses  are  mostly  your  friends;  so  that 
if  you  have  not  always  particular  instructions  from  the 
Governor,  which  you  think  necessary  and  desire,  the  omis- 
sion, or  neglect,  may  proceed  from  the  confidence  enter- 
tained in  your  ability  and  discretion  to  do  what  is  fit  and 
praiseworthy." 

May  23,  1756,  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Dinwid- 
die  from  Winchester: 

"  The  spirit  of  desertion  was  so  remarkable  in  the  mili- 
tia, that  it  had  a  surprising  effect  upon  the  regiment,  and 
encouraged  many  of  the  soldiers  to  desert. 

"  I  found  it  absolutely  impossible  to  go  to  Fort  Cum- 
berland at  this  time,  without  letting  matters  of  greater 
importance  suffer  in  my  absence  here;  such  a  multiplicity 
of  different  kinds  of  business  am  I  engaged  in. 

"  I  am  heartily  glad  your  Honor  has  fixed  upon  the 
gentlemen  Associators  to  point  out  the  place  for  erect- 
ing of  forts,  but  am  sorry  to  find  their  motions  so  slow. 

"  Your  Honor  approved  the  scheme  I  sent  down  for 
forming  the  regiment  into  two  battalions  of  twenty  com- 
panies, but  never  gave  any  directions  concerning  the  ap- 
pointment. Nor  do  I  think  there  can  be  any  plan  judi- 
ciously concerted,  until  we  know  what  number  of  forts  are 
to  be  built  upon  our  frontiers. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  331 

"  At  this  place  I  have  begun  the  fort  according  to  your 
orders,  and  found  that  the  work  would  not  be  conducted 
if  I  was  away,  which  was  one  among  many  reasons  that 
detained  me  here." 

The  gentlemen  Associators  referred  to  in  the  above 
were  about  one  hundred  leading  gentlemen  of  the  colony, 
headed  by  Peyton  Randolph,  the  Attorney-General.  They 
organized  as  volunteers  upon  the  special  alarm  of  great 
peril  on  the  frontier,  and  marched  towards  Winchester, 
but  undertook  no  further  service  when  the  alarm  subsided. 
When  Robinson,  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  gave  no- 
tice to  Washington  of  the  organization  of  the  company 
of  gentlemen  volunteers,  he  said  further: 

"  The  Council  and  House  of  Burgesses  have  agreed  on 
a  representation  to  his  Majesty,  in  which  you  and  the 
other  officers  are  recommended  to  his  Majesty's  favor. 
Our  hopes.  Dear  George,  are  all  fixed  on  you  for  bring- 
ing our  affairs  to  a  happy  issue." 

Governor  Dinwiddie  wrote.  May  28,  1756,  to  Major-Gen- 
eral  Abercrombie: 

"  As  we  are  told  the  Earl  of  Lx)udoun  is  to  raise  three 
regiments  on  this  continent,  on  the  British  establishment, 
I  dearn't  venture  to  trouble  him  immediately  on  his  arri- 
val with  any  recommendations;  but,  good  Sir,  give  me 
leave  to  pray  your  interest  with  his  Lordship  in  favor  of 
Colonel  George  Washington,  who,  I  will  venture  to  say, 
is  a  very  deserving  gentleman,  and  has  from  the  begin- 
ning commanded  the  forces  of  this  dominion.  General 
Braddock  had  so  high  an  esteem  for  his  merit,  that  he 
made  him  one  of  his  aid-de-camps,  and,  if  he  had  sur- 
vived, I  believe  he  would  have  provided  handsomely  for 
him  in  the  regulars.  He  is  a  person  much  beloved  here, 
and  he  has  gone  through  many  hardships  in  the  service; 
and  I  really  think  he  has  great  merit,  and  believe  he  can 


332  WASHINGTON. 

raise  more  men  here  than  any  one  present  that  I  know. 
If  his  Lordship  will  be  so  kind  as  to  promote  him  in  the 
British  establishment,  I  think  he  will  answer  my  recom- 
mendation." 

June  25,  1756,  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Din- 
widdie  from  Winchester: 

"  I  intend  to  take  the  advice  of  a  council  of  war  about 
the  line  on  which. these  forts  are  to  be  erected,  and  shall 
visit  all  the  ground  that  I  conveniently  can,  and  direct 
the  building. 

"  It  is  a  work  that  must  be  conducted  tedious,  for  these 
reasons:  the  scarcity  of  tools,  smallness  of  our  numbers, 
and  want  of  conductors.  We  can  only  attempt  to  build 
fort  after  fort,  not  attempting  too  many  at  a  time. 

"  Two  hundred  and  forty  six  drafts  are  the  total  number 
brought  in,  out  of  which  number  several  have  deserted. 

"  I  was  in  hope  that  by  garrisoning  the  forts  with 
part  of  the  militia,  we  should  have  been  able  to  have  mus- 
tered a  greater  number  of  soldiers  to  work  upon  the  forts 
that  are  to  be  built.  But  I  am  under  the  greatest  appre- 
hensions that  all  who  are  now  up  will  desert.  They  go 
ofif  in  twenties,  and  all  threaten  to  return  [home]  if  they 
are  not  relieved  in  a  very  short  time  or  discharged. 
*  *  *  If  they  should  go,  as  I  suppose  they  will,  we 
shall  again  be  much  exposed,  and  cannot  defend  so  ex- 
tensive a  frontier. 

"  Governor  Sharpe  is  building  a  fort  on  Potomac  river, 
which  may  be  of  great  service  towards  the  protection  of 
our  people  on  that  side." 

In  a  letter  of  July  13,  1756,  from  Fort  Cumberland,  to 
Captain  Waggener,  Washington  said: 

"  From  the  great  confidence  I  repose  in  your  diHgence, 
I  have  appointed  you  to  a  command  on  which  much  de- 
pends; and  I  doubt  not  you  will  see  the  work  carried  on 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  333 

with  expedition.  And  I  must  particularly  recommend  it 
to  you  to  keep  up  a  strict  command,  both  over  officers 
and  men,  as  you  will  be  answerable  for  any  delays  or 
neglect  which  may  happen  for  want  of  due  discipline;  and 
I  would  not  wish  your  good  nature  should  occasion  you 
to  overlook  a  fault  in  an  officer,  who  may  be  our  best 
friend. 

"  The  Governor  has  ordered  the  militia  to  be  discharged 
as  soon  as  harvest  is  over,  since  they  are  so  unwilling  to 
continue  until  December." 

Captain  Waggener  was  ordered  to  see  whether  a  fort 
erected  by  the  people  would  answer  for  a  public  fort,  and 
if  so  to  garrison  it;  and  then  go  on  to  the  next  place  in 
the  proposed  chain  of  forts;  get  all  the  timbers  ready,  and 
by  that  time  a  plan  of  the  kind  of  forts  to  be  built  would 
reach  him. 

To  Captain  Peter  Hog  orders  were  given  to  attend  to 
the  building  of  forts  southward  from  Fort  Dinwiddle 
towards  Mayo  river.  He  was  to  secure  at  Augusta  Court- 
house expeditions  calling  out  the  miHtia  of  Augusta  county 
to  aid  the  soldiers  in  building  the  forts.  These  orders  were 
given  at  Winchester,  July  21,  1756;  and  on  the  same  day, 
in  a  letter  to  Captain  Hog,  Washington  said: 

"  There  is  a  part  of  your  recruiting  account  which  much 
astonishes  me,  and  I  thought  you  nor  no  officer  who 
valued  his  character,  would  have  presumed  to  have  done 
such  a  thing,  as  he  must  be  certain  it  would  appear  as  a 
palpable  fraud  in  him." 

Washington  had  provided  both  money  and  provision  for 
sending  to  Waggener  some  enhsted  men,  and  the  latter 
had  charged  for  the  subsistence  of  these  men  before  he 
received  them,  when  he  had  been  at  no  cost  on  their 
account. 

July  22,  1756,  Washinton  wrote  to  Captain  Stewart  from 


334  WASHINGTON. 

Winchester,  giving  directions  in  regard  to  the  construc- 
tion of  forts,  and  the  tools  which  he  had  secured,  and 
other  tools  which  he  must  borrow,  hire,  or  buy  from  the 
inhabitants.     He  further  said: 

"  I  have  too  great  an  opinion  of  your  good  sense  and 
discretion  to  think  you  need  any  admonition  to  induce 
you  to  a  diligent  discharge  of  your  duty.  You  see  our 
situation,  know  our  danger,  and  bear  witness  of  the  peo- 
ple's sufferings,  which  are  sufficient  excitements  to  a  gen- 
erous mind. 

"  This  instant  I  received  yours  of  yesterday's  date,  and 
am  extremely  sorry  that  the  Indians  have  visited  us  at 
this  critical  juncture  of  harvesting,  especially  as  it  will 
prevent  your  proceedings  in  the  operations  ordered. 

"  If  you  can  learn  from  good  intelligence  that  their  num- 
bers are  great  and  motions  designed  for  Virginia,  endeavor 
to  give  the  inhabitants  notice,  that  they  may  lodge  their 
women  and  children,  and  assist  against  the  enemy. 

*'  If  you  find  they  are  only  flying  parties  of  the  Indians, 
I  would  advise  the  settlers  by  no  means  to  neglect  their 
harvest,  as  their  whole  support  depends  upon  it,  and  your 
assistance  to  get  it  in. 

"  I  have  sent  you  two  barrels  of  powder,  and  four  boxes 
of  ball.  As  to  cartridge  paper,  I  neither  have  nor  can 
get  any  upon  any  terms.  You  must  get  horns  and 
pouches,  if  you  send  over  the  neighborhood  for  them." 

August  4,  1756,  Washington  wrote  to  Dinwiddle  from 
Winchester  that  the  necessary  orders  and  directions  for 
the  chain  of  forts  to  be  built  on  the  frontiers  had  been 
attended  to,  and  plans  and  tools  despatched  with  the  or- 
ders to  all  the  officers  appointed  to  the  work.  The  Coun- 
cil and  himself  had  not  wholly  followed  the  act  of  the  As- 
sembly, some  changes  being  required  by  the  situation  of 
the  country,  but  the  scheme  adopted  would  undoubtedly 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  335 

give  ''  the  best  chain  that  can  possibly  be  erected  for  the 
defence  of  the  people.'' 

"  I  make  no  doubt  your  Honor  has  ere  this  heard  of  the 
defeat  of  Lieutenant  Rutherford  of  the  Rangers,  escort- 
ing an  express  to  me  at  Fort  Cumberland,  and  of  the  das- 
tardly behavior  of  the  militia,  who  ran  off  without  one 
half  of  them  having  discharged  their  pieces,  although  they 
were  apprised  of  the  ambuscade  by  one  of  their  flanking 
parties,  before  the  Indians  fired  upon  them;  and  ran  back 
to  Ashby's  Fort,  contrary  to  orders,  persuasions,  threats, 
&c.  They  are  all  ordered  in  (from  detachment  duty  as 
guards  to  the  plantations),  as  soon  as  the  people  have  se- 
cured their  harvest.  Through  the  passive  behavior  of  their 
officers  they  have  been  very  refractory. 

"  I  think  with  the  number  of  men  we  have,  there  is  but 
a  poor  prospect  of  our  finishing  our  forts  in  time,  and  a 
much  worse  of  defending  our  frontiers  properly,  and  I 
would  be  glad  if  some  expedient  could  be  fallen  upon  to 
augment  it. 

"  There  is  an  act  of  Parliament  to  allow  all  servants  to 
enlist,  and  the  owners  to  be  paid  a  reasonable  allowance 
for  them.  If  we  had  this  privilege,  we  could  soon  com- 
plete the  regiment.  *  *  *  If  we  have  not  this  liberty 
granted  us,  the  servants  will  all  run  off  to  the  regular 
officers  who  are  recruiting  about  us ;  and  that  would  be  to 
weaken  our  colony  much.  For  my  part  I  see  no  other 
expedient. 

"  Your  Honor  sees  plainly  how  little  our  strength  has 
been  augmented  by  the  drafts,  and  in  three  or  four  months 
they  are  to  be  discharged. 

"  I  could  wish  we  were  clear  of  Fort  Cumberland.  It 
takes  a  great  part  of  our  small  force  to  garrison  it,  and  I 
see  no  service  that  it  is  to  our  colony;  for  since  the  In- 
dians have  driven  the  inhabitants  so  low  down,  they  do 


336  WASHINGTON. 

not  hestiate  to  follow  them  as  far  as  this  place.  There 
have  been  several  families  murdered,  on  the  Maryland 
side,  this  week ;  and  Fort  Cumberland  is  now  so  much  out 
of  the  way  that  they  seldom  hear  of  those  things  within 
a  month  after  they  are  done.  Our  men  want  many  neces- 
saries, until  the  arrival  of  their  regimentals,  which  cannot 
be  had  without  sending  to  Philadelphia ;  and  the  great  loss 
we  shall  suffer  by  sending  them  our  paper  money,  has 
prevented  my  purchasing  these  things,  until  the  men  are 
almost  naked. 

"We  cannot  afford  to  put  up  with  the  loss  of  sending, 
paper  money,  which  I  am  credibly  informed  may  be  bought 
up  in  Philadelphia  for  fifteen  per  cent  their  currency. 

"  We  are  in  great  want  of  drums  here,  and  none  can 
be  bought.  We  now  have  many  young  drummers  learn- 
ing here. 

"  I  could  by  no  means  bring  the  Quakers  to  any  terms. 
They  chose  rather  to  be  whipped  to  death  than  bear  arms, 
or  lend  us  any  assistance  whatever  upon  the  fort,  or  any- 
thing of  self-defence.  Some  of  their  friends  have  been 
security  for  their  appearance,  when  they  are  called  for; 
and  I  have  released  them  from  the  guard  house  until  I 
receive  further  orders  from  your  Honor,  which  they  have 
agreed  to  apply  for. 

"  I  observe  your  Honor's  proposal  of  carrying  on  an 
expedition  against  the  Ohio.  I  have  always  thought  it 
the  best  and  only  method  to  put  a  stop  to  the  incursions 
of  the  enemy,  as  they  would  then  be  obliged  to  stay  at 
home  to  defend  their  own  possessions.  But  we  are  quite 
unprepared  for  such  an  undertaking.  If  it  is  fixed  upon, 
now  is  the  time  for  buying  up  provisions,  and  laying  them 
in  at  the  most  convenient  place.  The  Pennsylvania  butch- 
ers are  buying  quantities  of  beef  here,  which  should  be  put 
a  stop  to,  if  we  are  to  march  towards  the  Ohio.     If  we 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  SSt 

are  still  to  remain  on  the  defensive,  and  garrison  the  chain 
of  forts,  provisions  must  be  laid  in  at  each  of  them;  and 
I  much  fear,  if  we  march  from  the  frontiers,  all  the  inhab- 
itants will  quit  their  plantations." 

An  English  letter  of  May  ii,  1756,  to  the  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  stated  that  the  King  had  appointed  the 
Earl  of  Loudoun  to  succeed  Governor  Shirley  as  British 
Commander-in-Chief  for  America, —  a  bad  choice,  on  ac- 
count of  the  Earl's  incompetency.  When  Pitt  came  into 
power  he  was  recalled.  Loudoun  was  empowered  to  raise 
in  the  Colonies  a  Royal  American  regiment,  to  consist 
of  four  battalions  and  be  commanded  by  officers  commis- 
sioned by  the  King.  Permission  to  enlist  servants  was 
given,  and  the  consequent  recruiting  made  trouble  with 
the  colonial  service.  By  servants  were  meant  whites  '"  in- 
dented "  to  service  for  a  term  of  years,  not  negro  slaves, 
unless  in  exceptional  cases.  The  Virginia  drafting  of  men 
was  made  a  farce  almost  by  permitting  a  person  drafted 
to  escape  service  upon  paying  iio,  and  by  making  the 
term  of  service  too  short.  The  Quakers  got  off  easily, 
through  Dinwiddle's  orders  to  "  use  them  with  lenity," 
merely  holding  them,  ''  at  their  own  expense,"  to  the  end 
of  the  term  for  which  they  were  drafted. 

August  5,  1756,  Washington  addressed  a  very  long  let- 
ter to  his  most  influential  friend,  John  Robinson,  Speaker 
of  the  Assembly.     In  this  he  said : 

"  Captain  Gist  has  at  divers  times  entreated  me,  in  the 
most  interesting  manner,  to  intercede  in  his  behalf,  that 
he  may  get  the  balance  of  his  account,  his  distresses  calling 
aloud  for  all  the  assistance  that  all  these  sums  can  con- 
tribute. I  do  not  know  really  who  to  apply  to  for  this 
purpose,  or  whose  right  it  is  to  pay  the  account,  but  it 
is  certainly  wrong  not  to  pay  him  at  all.  If  a  hearty  zeal 
for  the  interest  of  this  colony,  many  losses  in  serving  it 
22 


338  WASHINGTON. 

atid  true  distress,  can  recommend  him  to  any  favor,  he 
certainly  merits  indulgence.  The  Governor  bids  him  go 
to  the  Committee,  and  the  Committee  think  the  Governor 
should  pay  it.  So  that  the  poor  man  suffers  greatly  and 
would  be  glad  to  know  his  doom  at  once,  as  it  has  been 
so  long  depending. 

"  I  could  heartily  wish  the  Governor  and  Committee 
would  resolve  me,  whether  Fort  Cumberland  is  to  be  gar- 
risoned with  any  of  the  Virginia  forces  or  not.  It  lies  in 
a  most  defenceless  posture,  and  I  do  not  care  to  be  at 
expense  in  erecting  new,  or  repairing  old  works,  until  I 
am  satisfied  on  this  point. 

"  The  place  at  present  contains  all  our  provisions  and 
valuable  stores,  and  is  not  capable  of  an  hour's  defence, 
if  the  enemy  were  to  bring  only  one  single  half-pounder 
against  it ;  which  they  might  do  with  great  ease  on  horse- 
back. It  lies  so  remote  now  from  this,  as  well  as  the 
neighboring  inhabitants,  that  it  requires  as  much  force 
to  keep  the  communication  open  to  it,  as  a  fort  at  the 
Meadows  would  do,  and  employs  150  men,  who  are  a  dead 
charge  to  the  country,  as  they  can  be  of  no  other  use  than 
just  to  protect  and  guard  the  stores,  which  might  as  well 
be  lodged  at  Cox's  [on  Patterson's  Creek,  25  miles  nearer 
to  Winchester]  ;  indeed  better.  A  strong  guard  there 
would  not  only  protect  the  stores,  but  also  the  few  re- 
maining inhabitants  at  the  Branch  [south  Branch  of 
Potomac],  and  at  the  same  time  waylay  and  annoy  the 
enemy,  as  they  pass  and  repass  the  mountains;  whereas 
those  at  Fort  Cumberland,  lying  out  in  a  corner,  quite 
remote  from  the  inhabitants  to  where  the  Indians  always 
repair  to  do  their  murders,  can  have  no  intelligence  of 
anything  that  is  doing,  but  remain  in  total  ignorance  of 
all  transactions.  When  I  was  down  I  applied  to  the  Gov- 
ernor for  his  particular  and  positive  directions  in  this  af- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  339 

fair.  The  following  is  an  exact  copy  of  his  answer. — 
'  Fort  Cumberland  is  a  King's  fort,  and  built  chiefly  at 
the  charge  of  the  colony,  therefore  properly  under  our 
direction,  until  a  governor  is  appointed.'  Whether  I  am 
to  understand  this  ay  or  no  to  the  question,  '  Is  the  fort 
to  be  continued  ? '  —  I  know  not.  But  in  all  important 
matters  I  am  directed  in  this  ambiguous  and  uncertain 
way." 

In  a  written  expression  of  his  view  Dinwiddie  appears 
as  saying,  "  Its  a  King's  fort  and  a  magazine  for  stores ; 
its  not  in  my  power  to  order  it  to  be  deserted  *  *  * 
at  present  it  must  be  properly  supported  with  men." 
Robinson  said  on  this  matter  in  reply  to  Washington, 
"The  Committee  were  all  of  opinion  with  you,  that  the 
keeping  Fort  Cumberland  was  an  unnecessary  expense ; 
but,  upon  my  mentioning  their  opinion  to  the  Governor, 
he  appeared  very  warm,  and  said  my  Lord  Loudoun 
might  do  what  he  pleased,  but  for  his  part  he  would  not 
remove  the  garrison,  or  order  the  fort  to  be  demolished, 
for  his  right  hand." 

The  letter  of  Washington  to  Robinson  touched  upon 
other  points : 

"  Great  and  inconceivable  difficulties  arise  in  the  execu- 
tion of  my  commands,  as  well  as  infinite  loss  and  disrepute 
to  the  service,  by  my  not  having  power  to  pay  for  [the 
return  of]  deserters.  Many  of  our  deserters  are  appre- 
hended in  Maryland,  and  some  in  Pennsylvania,  and,  for 
the  sake  of  a  reward,  are  brought  hither.  But  when  they 
[who  bring  them]  are  to  receive  certificates  only,  that 
they  are  entitled  to  200  pounds  of  tobacco,  and  those 
certificates  are  to  be  given  in  to  a  court  of  claims,  there 
to  lie  perhaps  till  they  are  quite  forgot,  gives  so  much 
dissatisfaction,  that  many,  I  believe,  rather  than  appre- 


340  WASHINGTON, 

hend  one,  would  aid  iifty  to  escape,  and  this  too  among 
our  own  people. 

*'  I  should  be  glad  to  know  whether  the  act  of  the  As- 
sembly prohibits  the  forces  from  marching  out  of  the  col- 
ony. If  we  cannot  take  any  of  the  forces  out  of  the  col- 
ony, the  disadvantages  the  country  may  labor  under  are 
not  to  be  described;  for  the  enemy  may  commit  the  most 
unheard  of  cruelties,  and  by  stepping  across  the  Potomac 
evade  pursuit,  and  mock  our  best  endeavors  to  scourge 
them. 

"  The  inconveniences  that  arise  from  paying  the  soldiers 
in  large  bills  are  not  to  be  conceived.  We  are  obliged 
afterwards  to  give  the  pay  of  two  or  three  soldiers  to  one 
man.  He,  ten  to  one,  drinks,  games,  or  pays  it  away; 
by  which  means  the  parties  are  all  dissatisfied,  and  per- 
petually complaining  for  want  of  their  pay.  It  also  pre- 
vents them  from  laying  out  their  pay  for  absolute  neces- 
saries, and  obliges  them  many  times  to  drink  it  out;  for 
they  put  it  into  the  tavern-keeper's  hands,  who  will  give 
no  change,  unless  they  consent  to  take  the  greatest  part 
in  liquor.  In  short,  for  five  shillings  cash  you  may  at  any 
time  purchase  a  month's  pay  from  the  soldiers;  in  such 
contempt  do  they  hold  the  currency.  Besides  small  bills 
(if  the  thing  is  practicable)  I  should  be  extremely  glad  to 
receive  some  part  of  the  money  in  Spanish  and  Portugal 
gold  and  silver.  There  are  many  things  wanted  for  the 
use  of  the  regiment  which  cannot  be  had  here  and  may 
be  had  at  Philadelphia;  but  their  undervaluing  of  our 
[paper]  money  has  prevented  my  sending  thither. 

''At  the  repeated  instances  of  the  soldiers,  I  must  pay 
so  much  regard  to  their  representations  as  to  transmit 
their  complaints.  They  think  it  extremely  hard,  as  it  is 
indeed.  Sir,  that  they,  who  perhaps  do  more  duty,  and 
undergo  more  fatigue  and  hardship,  from  the  nature  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  341 

the  service  and  situation  of  the  country,  than  any  troops 
upon  the  continent,  should  be  allowed  the  least  pay,  and 
the  smallest  encouragements  in  other  respects.  The 
CaroHnians  received  British  pay;  the  Marylanders,  I  be- 
lieve, do  the  same;  Pennsylvania  is  exorbitant  in  reward- 
ing their  soldiers  [i8d.  a  day  and  subsistence,  to  8d.  a  day 
in  Virginia]  ;  the  Jerseys  and  New  Yorkers  I  do  not  re- 
member what  it  is  they  give;  but  the  New  England  gov- 
ernments give  more  than  a  shilling  per  day,  our  money, 
besides  an  allowance  of  rum,  peas,  tobacco,  ginger,  vine- 
gar, etc.,  etc. 

"  Our  soldiers  complain  that  their  pay  is  insufficient 
even  to  furnish  shoes,  shirts,  stockings,  etc.,  which  their 
officers,  in  order  to  keep  them  fit  for  duty,  oblige  them 
to  provide.  This,  they  say,  deprives  them  of  the  means 
of  purchasing  any  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  obliges 
them  to  drag  through  a  disagreeable  service  in  the  most 
disagreeable  manner.  That  their  pay  will  not  afiford  more 
than  enough  (if  that)  to  keep  them  in  clothes,  I  should 
be  convinced  of  for  these  reasons,  if  experience  had  not 
taught  me.  The  British  soldiers  are  allowed  eight  pence 
sterling  per  day,  with  many  necessaries  that  ours  are  not, 
and  can  buy  what  is  requisite  upon  the  cheapest  terms; 
and  lie  one  half  the  year  in  camp,  or  garrison,  when  they 
cannot  consume  the  fifth  part  of  what  ours  do  in  continual 
marches  over  mountains,  rocks,  rivers,  etc.  Then,  Sir, 
is  it  possible  that  our  men,  who  receive  a  fourth  less,  have 
two  pence  per  day  stoppages  for  their  regimental  clothing, 
and  all  other  stoppages  that  British  soldiers  have,  and 
are  obliged,  by  being  in  continual  action,  to  lay  in  triple 
the  quantity  of  ammunition  and  clothes,  and  at  double  the 
price,  should  be  able  to  clear  quarters?  It  is  not  to  be 
done,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  the  men  have  always 
been  so  naked  and  bare  of  clothes. 


342  WASHINGTON. 

"And  I  dare  say  you  will  be  candid  enough  to  allow, 
that  there  are  few  men  who  would  choose  to  have  their 
lives  exposed,  without  some  view  or  hope  of  reward,  to 
the  incessant  assaults  of  a  merciless  enemy. 

"Another  thing  there  is  which  gives  them  great  uneasi- 
ness, and  that  is,  seeing  no  regular  provision  made  for  the 
maimed  and  wounded.  They  acknowledge  the  generosity 
of  the  Assembly,  and  have  the  highest  veneration  for  that 
respectable  House;  they  look  with  gratitude  on  the  care 
that  has  been  taken  of  their  brother  soldiers ;  but  say  this 
is  only  an  act  of  will,  and  another  Assembly  may  be  much 
less  liberal.  We  have  no  certainty  that  this  generosity 
may  continue,  consequently  can  have  nothing  in  view  but 
the  most  gloomy  prospects,  and  no  encouragement  to  be 
bold  and  active;  and  the  probable  effects  of  which  are 
wounds,  which  no  sooner  happen,  and  they  unfit  for  ser- 
vice, than  they  are  discharged,  and  turned  upon  an  un- 
charitable world  to  beg,  steal,  or  starve.  In  short,  they 
have  a  true  sense  of  all  that  can  happen,  and  do  not  think 
slightly  of  the  fatigues  they  encounter  in  scouring  these 
mountains  with  their  provisions  on  their  backs,  lying  out 
and  watching  for  the  enemy,  with  no  other  covering  or 
conveniency,  to  shelter  them  from  the  inclemency  of  the 
weather  than  trees  and  rocks!  The  old  soldiers  are  af- 
fected, and  complain  of  their  hardships  and  little  encour- 
agement, in  piteous  terms ;  and  they  give  these  as  reasons 
for  so  much  desertion.  The  money  that  is  given  in  pay- 
ing for  deserters,  expresses,  horse-hire,  losses  and  abuse 
of  horses,  would  go  a  great  length  toward  advancing  their 
pay,  which  I  hope  would  contribute  not  a  little  to  remove 
the  cause  of  this  expense.  I  would  not  have  it  here  un- 
derstood, though,  that  I  mean  to  recommend  anything 
extraordinary;  no,  I  would  give  them  British  pay,  and 
entitle  them  to  the  same  privileges  during  their  stay  in 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  343 

the  service,  and  as  a  reward  or  compliment  for  their  toil, 
rather  than  a  matter  of  right.  Were  the  country  to  give 
them  one  suit  of  regimental  clothes  a  year,  without  receiv- 
ing the  two  pence  stoppage,  it  would  be  a  full  allowance, 
and  give  great  content  and  satisfaction.  All  they  want 
(they  say)  is  to  be  entitled  to  the  privileges  and  immuni- 
ties of  soldiers,  of  which  they  are  well  informed  by  some 
who  have  been  a  number  of  years  in  the  army,  then  they 
should  think  it  no  hardship  to  be  subject  to  the  punish- 
ments and  fatigues. 

"  Were  this  done,  and  an  order  given  by  the  Committee 
empowering  me  to  provide  for  them,  according  to  the 
rules  and  customs  of  the  army,  then  I  should  know  what 
I  was  about,  and  I  could  do  it  without  hesitation  or  fear, 
and,  am  convinced,  to  the  satisfaction  and  interest  of  the 
country. 

**As  the  case  now  stands,  we  are  upon  such  odd  estab- 
lishment, under  such  uncertain  regulations,  and  subject  to 
so  much  inconvenience,  that  I  am  wandering  in  a  wilder- 
ness of  difficulties,  and  am  ignorant  of  the  ways  to  extri- 
cate myself,  and  to  steer  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  coun- 
try, of  the  soldiers,  or  of  myself.  Having  no  certain  rules 
for  the  direction  of  my  conduct,  I  am  afraid  to  turn  to 
this  hand  or  to  that,  lest  it  should  be  censured. 

''^If  such  an  order,  as  I  before  spoke  of,  was  to  issue 
from  your  Board,  I  would  then  immediately  provide  upon 
the  best  terms  a  quantity  of  all  kinds  of  ammunition, 
clothes,  etc.,  for  the  use  of  the  regiment,  and  deliver  them 
out  to  each  company  as  their  wants  required,  taking  care 
to  deduct  the  value  of  all  such  things  from  their  pay.  By 
this  means  the  soldiers  would  be  always  provided  and  fit 
for  duty,  and  do  it  cheerfully,  and  the  country  sustains  no 
other  loss  than  advancing,  and  lying  out  of,  the  money 
for  a  few  months  to  lay  in  those  stores,  as  this  money  is 


344  WASHINGTON. 

always  restored  by  the  soldiers  again.  I  have  hitherto 
been  afraid  to  advance  any  sums  of  money  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  always  bought  at  extravagant  prices,  and  have 
been  obliged  to  send  to  different  parts,  ere  they  could  be 
had,  which  has  also  contributed  to  the  cause  of  their 
nakedness. 

"  The  officers  are  almost  as  uneasy  and  dispirited  as  the 
men,  doing  every  part  of  duty  with  languor  and  indiffer- 
ence.    When  they  are  ordered  to  provide  themselves  with 
suitable  necessaries,  they  complain  of  an  uncertain  estab- 
lishment, and  the  probability  of  being  disbanded,  and,  so, 
things  rendered  useless.     So  that  I  really  most  heartily 
wish   for  a   change.     The   surgeon  has  entreated  me   to 
mention  his  case,  which  I  shall  do  by  enclosing  his  letters. 
He  has  behaved  extremely  well,  and  discharged  his  duty 
in  every  capacity  since  he  came  into  the  regim.ent.     He 
has  long  discovered  an  inchnation  to  quit  the  service,  the 
encouragement  being  so  small ;  and  I  believe  would  have 
done  it,  had  not  the  officers,  to  show  their  regard  and  will- 
ingness to  detain  him,  subscribed  each  one  day's  pay  in 
every  month.     This,  as  they  are  likely  to  be  so  much  dis- 
persed, and  can  receive  no  benefit  from  him,  they  intend 
to  withdraw  (he   says)   and  therefore  begs  me  to  solicit 
the  gentlemen  of  the  committee  on  his  behalf ;  otherwise 
he  will  be  obliged  to  seek  some  other  method  of  getting 
his  livelihood. 

''  If  it  is  thought  necessary  to  establish  an  hospital,  I 
believe  there  can  scarcely  be  a  doubt  but  that  this  is  the 
place ;  and  then  I  hope  he  will  be  appointed  director,  with 
aSvanced  pay.  Whether  or  not,  I  could  really  wish  his 
pay  or  perquisites  was  increased,  for  the  reasons  he  gives. 
"  I  beg,  Sir,  with  very  great  earnestness,  that  the  gentle- 
men of  the  Committee  will  communicate  their  sentiments 
fully  upon  all  these  several  matters,  and  approve  or  dis- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  345 

approve  of  everything  therein.  I  only  wait  to  know  their 
intention,  and  then  act  in  strict  conformity  thereto. 

"  If  the  Committee  find  my  account  satisfactory  and 
distinct,  as  I  have  no  doubt  of  it,  it  would  be  a  great  obli- 
gation if  they  would  make  a  final  settlement  to  that  date, 
and  begin  a  new  account.  They  will  find  little  trouble,  or 
difficulty,  in  overhauling  short  accounts,  kept  in  a  regular 
method,  plain  and  perspicuous,  which  is  the  very  life  of^ 
business." 

It  will  be  seen  that  on  August  4th  Washington  wrote  a 
long  letter  to  Governor  Dinwiddle,  and  on  August  5th 
another  and  very  long  letter  to  Speaker  Robinson,  the 
former  making  nine  printed  pages,  and  the  latter  thirteen. 
On  August  5th  he  also  wrote  letters  to  Captain  Waggener 
and  to  Colonel  Stephen.     To  Waggener  he  said : 

"  I  have  so  many  places  and  people  to  defend ;  so  great 
calls  from  every  quarter  for  men ;  and  so  little  prospects 
for  getting  any,  that  I  find  it  impossible  to  comply  with 
the  act  of  Assembly,  and  opinion  of  the  Council  of  War, 
in  building  the  chain  of  forts  on  the  frontiers.  You  must, 
therefore,  notwithstanding  all  the  orders  which  have  here- 
tofore been  given,  immediately  despatch  Capt.  Bell,  with 
his  whole  company  to  Capt.  Cox's  fort.  *  *  *  Your 
own  and  the  two  remaining  companies,  you  are  to  dis- 
pose of  in  the  most  eligible  manner  for  the  protection  of 
the  inhabitants  above  the  Trough ;  and  I  could  most  ear- 
nestly wish  that  you  would,  if  the  thing  is  practicable, 
erect  a  fort  in  that  settlement,  twenty  miles  above  your 
upper  fort." 

To  Colonel  Stephen  he  said : 

"  The  views  of  the  enemy  are  designed  against  the  lower 
inhabitants.  They  have  laid  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania 
waste,  as  low  as  Carlisle,  the  inhabitants  of  which  place 
we  are  told  are   flying  with   the   utmost    consternation. 


346  WASHINGTON. 

They  have  made  an  attempt  on  the  Virginia  side,  killed 
one  and  captivated  another  four  miles  hitherwards,  but 
retreated  back,  for  how  long  a  time,  God  knows. 

"  Yesterday  I  wrote  you  [and -the  same  to  Waggener], 
and  desired  that  all  the  captains  would  be  punctual  in 
making  me  weekly  returns,  signed  by  themselves  and  offi- 
cers, signifying  the  state  and  strength  of  their  companies, 
and  shall  here  repeat  these  orders,  because  I  am  fully 
resolved  to  suspend  the  first  Captain  (or  commander  of 
a  company)  that  fails  in  this  point,  or  that  is  negligent 
and  incorrect  in  making  them  out,  tho'  they  may  err  but 
in  one  man.  By  my  returns  of  the  regiment  including 
drafts,  scouts,  and  rangers,  I  can  only  make  926  men; 
while  Mr  Boyd,  exclusive  of  Captain  Hog's  company,  has 
issued  pay  for  1080.'' 

To  Governor  Dinwiddie  Washington  wrote  from  Win- 
chester August  14,  1756: 

"  We  have  built  some  and  altered  other  forts,  as  far 
south  on  the  Potomac  waters  as  any  settlers  have  been 
molested;  and  there  only  remains  one  body  of  inhabitants, 
at  a  place  called  the  Upper  Tract,  which  needs  a  guard 
upon  these  waters,  and  thither  I  have  ordered  a  party. 

"  There  have  been  two  or  three  men  killed  and  scalped 
at  different  places  since  my  last,  though  every  precaution 
has  been  taken  to  prevent  it.  The  fatiguing  service,  low 
pay,  and  great  hardships  in  which  our  men  have  been  en- 
gaged, cause,  notwithstanding  the  greatest  care  and  vigil- 
ance to  the  contrary,  great  and  scandalous  desertions. 
Yesterday  I  received  an  account  from  Captain  Stewart 
of  sixteen  men  deserting  in  a  party.  Frequently  two  or 
three  went  oflf  before,  as  they  have  done  from  this  place. 
We  never  fail  to  pursue,  and  use  all  possible  means  to 
apprehend  them;  but  seldom  with  success,  as  they  are 
generally  aided  and  assisted  ofiF  by  the  inhabitants. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  347 

"A  report  prevailed  in  town  yesterday  that  a  large  body 
of  Indians,  headed  by  some  French,  intended  to  attack 
Fort  Cumberland  "this  fall.  The  consequence  of  a  success- 
ful enterprise,  and  the  absolute  impossibility  (considering 
the  weakness  of  the  place,  badness  of  situation,  and  divi- 
sion of  our  force)  of  preventing  its  falling,  are  motives 
sufficient  to  apprehend  the  worst,  especially  when  we  con- 
sider that  our  provision,  and,  what  is  still  more  valuable, 
all  our  ammunition  and  stores,  are  lodged  in  that  defence- 
less place. 

"All  the  militia  are  returned  [home]  save  30  from  Cul- 
peper,  who  stay  willingly  with  Captain  Fields." 

To  Lord  Thomas  Fairfax,  August  29,  1756,  Washington 
wrote  from  Winchester : 

"  It  is  with  infinite  concern  I  see  the  distresses  of  the 
people,  and  hear  their  complaints,  without  being  able  to 
afford  them  relief.  I  have  so  often  troubled  your  Honor 
for  aid  from  the  militia,  that  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  re- 
peat my  demands;  nor  should  mention  them  again,  did 
I  not  think  it  absolutely  necessary  at  this  time  to  save  the 
most  valuable  and  flourishing  part  of  this  county  from 
immediate  desertion.  And  how  soon  the  remainder  part, 
as  well  as  the  adjacent  counties,  may  share  the  same  fate, 
is  too  obvious  to  reason,  and  to  your  Lordship's  good 
sense  for  me  to  demonstrate.  The  whole  settlement  of 
Conococheague  in  Maryland  is  fled,  and  there  now  remain 
only  two  families  from  thence  to  Fredericktown,  which 
is  several  miles  below  the  Blue  Ridge.  By  which  means 
we  are  quite  exposed,  and  have  no  better  security  on  that 
side  than  the  Potomac  river  for  many  miles  below  the 
Shenandoah;  and  how  great  security  that  is  to  us  may 
easily  be  discerned  when  we  consider  with  what  facility 
the  enemy  have  passed  and  repassed  it  already.  That  the 
Maryland  settlements  are  all  abandoned  is  certainly  fact. 


348  WASHINGTON, 

1  thought  it  expedient  to  inform  your  Lordship  of  the 
reasons  for  asking  succours  for  these  unhappy  people, 
and  how  absolutely  necessary  it  is  to  use  without  delay 
such  vigorous  measures  as  will  save  that  settlement  from 
total  desolation. 

"  When  Hampshire  [county]  was  invaded,  and  called 
on  Frederick  for  assistance,  the  people  of  the  latter  re- 
fused their  aid,  answering,  '  Let  them  defend  themselves, 
as  we  shall  do  if  they  come  to  us.'  Now  the  enemy  have 
forced  through  that  county,  and  begin  to  infest  this,  those 
a  little  removed  from  danger  are  equally  infatuated;  and 
will  be,  I  fear,  until  all  in  turn  fall  a  sacrifice  to  an  insult- 
ing and  merciless  enemy. 

"  I  am  so  weak-handed  here  that  I  could  not,  without 
stagnating  the  public  works,  spare  a  man  to  these  peo- 
ples assistance.  Yet  I  look  upon  the  retaining  of  them 
to  be  so  essential  to  the  well-being  of  the  county  in  gen- 
eral, that  I  have  ordered  all  the  men  that  can  possibly  be 
spared,  to  march  thitherwards ;  to  remain  there  until  your 
Lordship  can  relieve  them  to  return  to  these  works.  I 
hope  your  Lordship  will  exert  your  authority  in  raising 
men.  This  will  redress  the  complaints  of  the  people,  be- 
low, who  say  they  cannot  leave  their  families  to  the  mercy 
of  the  enemy  while  they  are  scouring  the  woods." 

To  Colonel  Stephen,  Washington  wrote  September  6, 
1765,  from  W^inchester: 

"  I  am  in  hopes  our  men  for  the  future  will  be  better 
satisfied,  as  the  Committee  have  allowed  them  eight  pence 
per  day  and  their  clothes  without  any  stoppages  or  deduc- 
tions. 

"  The  Governor  informs  me  that  he  just  received  an 
express  from  Major  Lewis,  acquainting  him  that  he  might 
expect  150  Cherokees  to  be  at  this  place  in  a  fortnight; 
and  that  the  Catawba  king  had  engaged  to  send  50  war- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  349 

riors  to  our  assistance.  This  will  be  a  considerable  help 
to  us,  as  we  shall  be  able  to  carry  the  war  into  their  own 
country,  and  use  them  in  the  same  manner  they  have 
us  for  12  months  past.  He  adds  that  the  Catawbas  and 
Cherokees  are  very  firmly  attached  to  our  interest,  and 
will  still  furnish  us  with  more  assistance  when  the  fort  in 
that  country  is  completed.  It  is  already  in  great  for- 
wardness. 

"  I  have  got  orders  from  the  Governor  to  enlist  ser- 
vants, the  masters  to  be  paid  a  reasonable  price  upon 
the  first  purchase,  deducting  for  the  time  they  have  served. 
Complaint  has  been  made  that  the  officers  and  soldiers 
upon  party  [a  recruiting  party]  take  up  the  strays  they 
find  in  the  woods.  Let  these  practices  be  discouraged. 
Ensign  Roy  had  my  promise  to  be  appointed  to  my  com- 
pany, as  it  is  the  company  he  before  belonged  to,  in  case 
my  brother  did  not  accept,  and  he  has  declined  it. 

"  Waters  and  Burrass  behaved  extremely  ill  when  they 
were  sent  down  last.  If  I  could  lay  my  hands  on  them, 
I  would  try  the  effect  of  looo  lashes  on  the  former,  and 
whether  a  general  court  martial  would  not  condemn  the 
latter  to  the  life  eternal. 

"  Capt.  Peachy  applied  to  me  for  leave  to  take  up 
strays,  etc.,  and  said  it  was  practised  by  the  Marylanders 
and  Pennsylvanians.  If  the  people  of  those  provinces  are 
guilty  of  unlawful  practices,  I  cannot  think  it  should  be 
any  excitement  to  us  to  follow  their  example:  for  under 
that  pretence  of  getting  strays  in  the  mountains,  is  car- 
ried on  a  scene  of  the  greatest  iniquity  that  can  be  im- 
agined. The  horses  of  our  deserted  settlements  are  taken 
up,  sold,  and  made  away  with,  to  the  infinite  detriment 
and  oppression  of  the  people,  who  complain  of  these  griev- 
ances in  the  most  sensible  manner,  and  urge  that  they 


350  WASHINGTON. 

are  more  oppressed  by  their  own  people  than  by  the 
enemy." 

To  Governor  Dinwiddie,  Washington  wrote  September 
8,  1756,  of  this  enhsting  of  servants : 

"  It  is  the  best,  most  expeditious,  nay,  only  method,  I 
know  of  now  to  recruit  the  forces.  It  will  occasion  great 
murmuring  and  discontent  to  the  masters,  if  they  are  not 
paid  immediately  for  their  servants. 

"  The  men  are  much  satisfied  with  the  augmentation  of 
their  pay,  but  nothing  will  prevent  their  desertion  while 
they  are  kindly  received  and  entertained  through  the  Col- 
ony, and  even  under  the  eye  of  the  civil  magistrate.  Those 
delivered  to  the  constables  are  always  suffered  to  escape, 
and  no  notice  taken  of  it. 

"  The  Indians  are  a  very  covetous  people,  and  expect 
to  be  well  rewarded  for  the  least  service. 

"  People  here  in  general  are  very  selfish ;  every  person 
expects  forces  at  his  own  door,  and  is  angry  to  see  them 
at  his  neighbors. 

"  The  number  of  tipling  houses  kept  here  is  a  great 
grievance. 

''All  the  efforts  which  have  been  made  here  to  raise  the 
militia  have  been  ineffectual. 

"  I  am  glad  the  Cherokees  have  determined  to  come 
to  our  assistance,  and  to  hear  of  the  firm  attachment  of 
them  and  the  Catawbas  to  our  interest.  They  will  be  of 
particular  service  —  more  than  twice  their  number  of  white 
men.  When  they  arrive,  which  I  pray  may  be  soon,  we 
may  deal  with  the  French  in  their  own  way ;  and,  by  visit- 
ing their  country,  will  keep  their  Indians  at  home. 

"We  have  been  happy  in  being  tolerable  peaceable  of 
late,  and  holding  our  own,  while  Maryland  and  Pennsyl-. 
vanir.  fly  in  the  utmost  consternation.  The  frontiers  of 
Maryland  are  abandoned  for  many  miles  below  the  Blue 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  351 

Ridge,  as  low  as  Fredericktown,  through  which  place  I 
am  credibly  informed  no  less  than  350  waggons,  trans- 
porting the  affrighted  families,  passed  in  the  space  of  three 
days.  The  Potomac  is  deserted  on  the  Maryland  side  40 
miles  below  Conococheague,  and  as  much  in  a  parallel 
below  Winchester,  and  is  now  more  than  any  the  theatre 
of  bloodshed  and  cruelty. 

"  Those  Indians  who  are  now  coming  should  be  showed 
all  possible  respect,  and  the  greatest  care  taken  of  them, 
as  upon  them  much  depends.  It  is  a  critical  time,  they 
are  very  humorsome,  and  their  assistance  very  necessary ! 
One  false  step  might  not  only  lose  us  that,  but  even  turn 
them  against  us.  All  kinds  of  necessary  goods,  etc., 
should  be  got  for  them. 

"  If  your  Honor  does  not  care  to  trouble  yourself  about 
it,  and  please  to  give  me  orders,  and  furnish  me  with 
money  or  letters  of  credit  (for  our  paper  money  passes  to 
great  disadvantage),  I  will  get  them  immediately  from 
Philadelphia,  which  is  the  only  place  that  I  know  of  that 
we  can  possibly  be  supplied  from. 

"As  the  most  of  our  present  corps  [of  officers]  are 
gentlemen  of  family,  and  have  now  been  sometime  in  the 
service,  I  fear  we  should  exchange  for  the  worse,  if  we 
aim  at  a  change." 

In  a  letter  of  August  14,  1756,  Washington  had  said  to 
the  Governor: 

"As  a  general  meeting  of  all  the  persons  concerned  in 
the  estate  of  my  deceased  brother  is  appointed  to  be  held 
at  Alexandria,  about  the  middle  of  September  next,  for 
making  a  final  settlement  of  all  his  affairs;  and  as  I  am 
deeply  interested,  not  only  as  an  executor  and  heir  to 
part  of  his  estate,  but  also  in  a  very  important  dispute, 
subsisting  between  Colonel  [George]  Lee,  who  married 
the  widow,  and  my  brothers  and  self,  concerning  advice 


352  WASHINGTON. 

in  the  will,  which  brings  the  whole  personal  estate  in 
question, —  I  say,  as  this  is  a  matter  of  very  great  mo- 
ment to  me,  I  hope  your  Honor  will  readily  consent  to 
my  attending  this  meeting,  provided  no  disadvantage  is 
likely  to  arise  during  my  absence;  in  which  case,  I  shall 
not  offer  to  quit  my  command." 

On  this  matter  Washington  wrote  to  the  Governor  from 
Mount  Vernon,  September  23,  1756: 

"  Under  your  kind  indulgence  I  came  to  this  place  a  few 
days  ago,  expecting  to  meet  the  executors  of  my  deceased 
brother,  in  order  to  make  a  final  settlement  of  his  affairs. 
I  was  disappointed  though  in  this  design,  by  the  Assem- 
bly having  called  away  the  principal  persons  concerned." 

On  public  matters,  Washington  further  said  in  this 
letter : 

"  I  have  often  urged  the  necessity  of  enforcing  the 
articles  of  war  in  all  their  parts,  where  it  is  not  incompati- 
ble with  the  nature  of  this  service. 

"  We  are  under  a  kind  of  regulation  at  present  that  ren- 
ders command  extremely  difficult  and  precarious,  as  no 
crimes  are  particularly  notified  but  mutiny  and  desertion. 

"  I  beg  leave  to  observe  in  regard  to  Fort  Cumberland, 
that  if  it  is  continued  we  must  be  confined  to  act  defen- 
sively, and  keep  our  forces  dispersed  as  they  now  are.  The 
place  must  be  fortified  with  strong  works,  or  else  inevi- 
tably fall,  garrison  and  stores,  into  the  enemy's  hands. 
How  fatal  a  stroke !  And  what  noise  this  will  make,  the 
censure  of  mankind  will  speedily  declare. 

"  I  did,  from  the  beginning,  express  my  sentiments 
against  having  small  garrisons  in  a  chain  of  forts  along 
our  frontiers. 

"  The  most  effectual  way  that  I  can  see,  though  none 
can  answer  while  we  act  defensively,  is  to  have  no  more 
than  three  or  four  large,  strong  forts,  built  at  convenient 


JOSEPH    WARREN. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  353 

distances,  upon  our  frontiers;  in  which  strong  garrisons 
must  be  maintained. 

"  Unless  the  Assembly  concerts  some  measures  to  aug- 
ment their  force,  the  country,  I  fear,  must  inevitably  fall. 
The  frontiers,  since  this  time  a  twelve  month,  are  totally 
deserted  for  50  miles  and  upwards  quite  from  north  to 
south,  and  all  below  that  greatly  thinned  by  the  removal 
of  numbers;  occasioned  in  some  measure  by  Maryland 
and  Pennsylvania  giving  ground  so  much  faster  than  we 
do,  which  exposes  a  very  fine  country  of  ours  on  that  side, 
as  low  as  Monocacy,  in  Maryland,  several  miles  on  this 
side  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

**  I  believe  I  might  also  add,  that  no  person  who  re- 
gards his  character,  will  undertake  a  command  without 
the  means  of  preserving  it ;  since  his  conduct  is  culpable 
for  all  misfortunes,  and  never  right  but  when  successful. 

"  I  cannot  think  any  number  under  2000  men  sufficient 
to  cover  our  extensive  frontiers,  and  with  them  it  is  im- 
possible to  prevent  misfortunes,  however  easy  the  world 
may  think  it.  What  means  can  be  used  to  raise  these 
men,  I  know  not,  unless  the  listing  servants  is  thought 
expedient;  and  that  alone  will  prove  ineffectual. 

*'  I  apprehend  it  will  be  thought  advisable  to  keep  a 
garrison  always  at  Fort  Loudoun  [Winchester] ;  for  which 
reason  I  would  beg  leave  to  represent  the  great  nuisance 
the  number  of  tippling-houses  in  Winchester  are  to  the 
soldiers,  who,  by  this  means,  in  despite  of  the  utmost  care 
and  vigilance,  are,  so  long  as  their  pay  holds  good,  in- 
cessantly drunk,  and  unfit  for  service. 

"The  rates  of  their  liquor  are  immoderately  high,  and 
the  publicans  throughout  the  country  charge  one  shilHng 
per  meal,  currency,  for  soldier's  diet;  and  the  country  only 
allows  the  recruiting  officer  eight  pence  per  day  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  soldier. 
23 


354  WASHINGTON. 

"  The  want  of  a  chaplain  does,  I  humbly  conceive,  re- 
flect dishonor  upon  the  regiment,  as  all  other  officers  are 
allowed.  The  gentlemen  of  the  corps  are  sensible  of  this, 
and  did  propose  to  support  one  at  their  private  expense." 

September  28,  1756,  Washington  wrote  from  Winches- 
ter to  Governor  Dinwiddle: 

"  I  arrived  here  last  night,  *  *  *  and  set  out  to- 
morrow for  Augusta." 

October  10,  1756,  Washington  wrote  from  Halifax, 
where  the  southernmost  fort  was,  that  he  had  met  within 
five  miles  of  the  Carolina  Hne,  the  commissioner  to  secure 
some  hundreds  of  Indian  aUies,  Major  Lewis,  and  the 
result  of  his  trip  to  the  Cherokees  was  seven  men  and 
three  women,  instead  of  the  expected  400.  At  Augusta 
Courthouse,  hearing  of  Indian  depredations,  Washington 
had  applied  to  Colonel  Stewart  to  raise  a  party  of  the 
militia  with  which  to  himself  march  to  Jackson's  river, 
to  scour  the  woods  there,  and  if  possible  fall  in  with  the 
enemy;  and  the  best  Stewart  had  been  able  to  do,  with 
Washington  waiting  five  days,  was  only  five  men.  In  this 
situation  Washington  had  proceeded  sixty  miles  to 
Luney's  Ferry  on  the  James  river,  in  hope  of  getting  men 
from  Colonel  Buchanan,  and  this  officer  had  told  him  with 
very  great  concern  that  he  was  finding  it  utterly  impos- 
sible to  raise  men  by  any  orders  that  he  could  give.  The 
only  service  Buchanan  had  been  able  to  render  was  that 
of  accompanying  Washington  to  Voss's,  on  the  Roanoke, 
where  Captain  Hog  was  building  a  fort;  and  here  they  had 
found  Captain  Hog  engaged  in  building  a  fort  with  only 
eighteen  of  his  company  while  a  militia  Captain  Hunt  with 
thirty  men  would  not  strike  a  stroke  unless  upon  a  guar- 
antee of  being  paid  forty  pounds  of  tobacco  per  day  for 
each  man.  The  place  was  "  a  pass  of  very  great  import- 
ance, being  a  very  great  inroad  of  the  enemy,"  where  a 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  355 

fort  would  protect  an  extensive  country.  Washington 
had  hardly  passed  from  this  point,  on  the  way  "  to  visit 
the  range  of  forts  in  this  country,"  when  "  two  men  were 
killed  along  the  same  road."  Not  one  of  the  inhabitants 
dared  stay  with  only  militia  protection.  ''  The  militia," 
said  Washington,  "  are  in  such  bad  order  and  discipline, 
that  they  will  go  and  come  when  and  where  they  please, 
without  regarding  time,  their  officers,  or  the  safety  of 
the  inhabitants,  but  consulting  solely  their  own  inclina- 
tions." Where  one-third  should  be  out  on  duty  hardly 
one-thirteenth  obeyed  the  order,  and  being  to  be  relieved 
every  month  "  they  are  more  than  that  time  marching  to 
and  from  their  stations,  and  will  not  wait  one  day  longer 
than  the  limited  time,  let  the  necessity  for  it  be  ever  so 
urgent."  And  in  fact,  even  if  their  month  was  not  out, 
an  urgent  necessity  for  action  would  send  them  away,  leav- 
ing Captain  Hog  and  his  only  eighteen  men,  for  example, 
to  face  Indian  attack  alone. 

*'  Perhaps  it  may  be  thought  that  I  reflect  unjustly," 
Washington  went  on  to  say.  "  I  really  do  not.  Sir;  I 
scorn  to  make  unjust  remarks  on  the  behavior  of  the 
militia,  as  much  as  I  despise  and  contemn  the  persons 
who  detract  from  mine  and  the  character  of  the  regiment. 
Were  it  not  that  I  consulted  the  good  of  the  public,  and 
thought  these  garrisons  merited  redress,  I  should  not  think 
ii  worth  my  mention.  I  only  want  to  make  the  country 
sensible  how  ardeatly  I  have  studied  to  promote  her  cause, 
and  wish  very  sincerely  my  successor  may  fill  my  place 
more  to  their  satisfaction  in  every  respect  than  I  have 
been  able  to  do. 

"  I  mentioned  in  my  last  that  I  did  not  think  a  less 
number  than  2000  men  would  be  sufficient  to  defend  our 
extensive  and  much  exposed  frontiers  from  the  ravages 
of  the  enemy.     I  have  not  had  one  reason  to  alter  my 


35G  WASHINGTON. 

opinion,  but  many  to  strengthen  and  to  confirm  it.  And 
I  flatter  myself  the  country  will,  when  they  know  my  mo- 
tives, be  convinced  that  I  have  had  no  sinister  views,  no 
vain  motives  of  commanding  a  number  of  men,  that  urge 
me  to  recommend  this  number  to  your  Honor,  but  that 
it  proceeds  from  the  knowledge  I  have  acquired  of  the 
country,  people,  &c.,  to  be  defended. 

"  I  set  out  this  day  on  my  return  to  the  fort  at  the  head 
of  Catawba,  where  Colonel  Buchanan  promised  to  meet 
me  with  a  party  to  conduct  me  along  our  frontiers,  up 
Jackson's  River  to  Fort  Dinwiddie,  and  higher  if  needful." 

The  reference  above  to  "  my  successor "  was  due  to 
Washington's  intention  of  resigning  in  consequen(;e  of  ma- 
lignant charges  against  his  regiment  in  a  communication 
to  the  Virginia  Gazette.  The  complaints  referred  to  in 
Washington's  letter  of  April  i8,  1756,  to  Governor  Din- 
widdie, had  been  renewed,  and  a  broadside  of  scurrilous 
abuse  launched  in  the  communication  mentioned. 

In  a  letter  of  October  23,  1756,  to  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Stephen,  in  command  at  Fort  Cumberland,  Washington 
referred  to  this  officer  an  order  from  Governor  Dinwiddie 
to  have  a  council  of  officers  pass  upon  the  question  of 
keeping  up  or  giving  up  that  fortress  This  council  of 
war,  held  October  30,  1756,  consisted  of  fifteen  officers, 
and  its  president.  Colonel  Stephen;  and  their  decision  was 
to  call  on  Washington  for  an  immediate  reinforcement 
to  the  garrison;  to  have  some  of  the  most  valuable  stores 
removed  to  Winchester;  to  go  on  with  the  works  for 
strengthening  the  fort;  and  to  refer  to  Lord  Loudoun  the 
question  of  a  more  adequate  strengthening  of  the  place 
and  reinforcing  of  the  garrison. 

Washington's  letter  to  Colonel  Stephen  had  announced 
his  intention  to  urge  upon  the  Assembly  the  advantages 
and  necessity  of  an  offensive  campaign ;  an  attempt  against 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  357 

Fort  Duquesne,  "  as  you  and  everybody  else  must  allow 
that  carrying  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country  is  the  sur- 
est method  of  peace  at  home  and  success  abroad."  "  The 
policy  of  the  French,"  he  continued,  "  is  so  subtle  that 
not  a  friendly  Indian  will  we  have  on  the  continent  if  we 
do  not  soon  dislodge  them  from  the  Ohio.  I  shall  exert 
every  power  to  make  this  plan  go  down  with  the  Assem- 
bly, and  press  them  to  vigorous  measures  for  the  safety 
and  interest  of  the  Country,  preferably  to  the  defensive, 
and  demonstrate  fully  to  them  everything  I  think  demands 
their  concern,  as  to  the  frontiers.  I  also  would  have  you 
collect  whatever  comes  under  your  own  observation  in 
these  respects,  that  we  may  omit  nothing  requisite  for 
the  Assembly's  regard." 

In  view  of  the  decision  of  the  council  of  war  as  to  Fort 
Cumberland,  Washington  expressed  this  opinion: 

''  The  situation  of  Fort  Cumberland  is  extremely  un- 
suitable for  defence,  and  in  no  ways  fit  for  fortification  — 
and  a  fort  somewhere  in  that  neighborhood  rather  more 
advanced  to  the  westward,  well-fortified  and  strongly  gar- 
risoned would  contribute  much  to  the  mutual  safety  and 
interest  of  the  three  colonies.  Because  it  secures  the 
only  gap  of  the  Alleghany  at  present  made  passable  for 
wheel-carriages  and  which  would  forward  an  Expedition 
to  the  Ohio.  Now  would  the  three  colonies  consent  to 
furnish  proportionable  supplies,  I  should  think  it  highly 
expedient  to  maintain  that  pass  by  erecting  a  Fortress  of 
strength  towards  the  Little  Meadows,  in  advance  to  the 
Enemy,  which  would  give  us  yet  more  advantages,  and 
Fort  Cumberland  would  still  answer  its  present  purpose 
without  attempting  its  improvement  while  covered  by  the 
other.  Or  should  Virginia  herself  take  the  weight  of  this 
Enterprise  —  or  could  it  be  accomplished  by  any  means 
whatever  —  I  should  be  extremely  fond  of  the  expedient. 


358  WASHINGTON. 

But  to  view  Fort  Cumberland  in  its  present  defenseless 
posture,  relative  to  Virginia  in  particular, —  and  at  this 
gloomy  juncture  of  aftairs — I  can  not  entertain  very  fav- 
orable sentiments  of  supporting  it. 

"  As  to  the  address  of  the  council  to  me  for  reinforce- 
ment, they  must  have  known  that  it  was  out  of  my  power 
to  grant  it. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  were  it  at  any  other  time  than  this  — 
knowmg  the  weakness  of  our  strength,  doubting  the  as- 
sistance of  our  neighbors,  and  dreading  the  consequence 
of  leaving  the  place  longer  exposed,  although  great  part  of 
the  stores  is  already  removed,  I  should  vote  for  demol- 
ishing it.  .  But  the  affair  being  of  great  importance,  I  only 
offer  my  sentiments;  and  submit  to  his  Honor  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  the  Assembly,  for  the  determination  of  the 
case." 

This  fort  was  "  built  of  stockades  about  nine  feet  high 
above  ground  and  never  intended  for  defence  against  ar- 
tillery;" also  it  was  "commanded  by  a  rising  ground 
about  150  yards  northwest  of  the  stockades,  and  over- 
looked by  several  hills  within  cannon  shot ; "  also  the  bar- 
racks were  "  without  the  fort,  ill-built,  and  easily  set  on 
fire  by  the  enemy;  as  any  number  of  men  can  come  under 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac  and  Will's  Creek,  within  pistol 
shot  of  the  barracks,  and  the  fort  itself,  without  being 
exposed  to  a  shot  from  cannon  or  small  arms :  "  and  finally, 
the  roads  here  made  it  the  only  place  south  of  Albany 
exposed  to  an  attack  from  carriage  guns. 

November  9,  1756,  Washington  wrote  from  Winchester 
to  Governor  Dinwiddie: 

''  From  Fort  Trial  on  Smith's  River,  I  returned  to  Fort 
William  on  the  Catawba,  where  I  met  Colonel  Buchanan 
with  about  30  men,  chiefly  officers,  to  conduct  me  up 
Jackson's  river,  along  the  range  of  forts.     With  this  small 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  359 

company  of  irregulars  [militia],  with  whom  order,  regu- 
larity, circumspection,  and  vigilance  were  matters  of  de- 
rision and  contempt,  we  set  out,  and,  by  the  protection 
of  Providence,  reached  Augusta  Court-House  in  seven 
days,  without  meeting  the  enemy;  otherwise  we  must  have 
fallen  a  sacrifice,  through  the  indiscretion  of  these  whoop- 
ing, hallooing  gentlemen  soldiers! 

"  The  jaunt  afiforded  me  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the 
bad  regulation  of  the  militia,  the  disorderly  proceedings 
of  the  garrisons,  and  the  unhappy  circumstances  of  the 
inhabitants. 

"  For  want  of  proper  laws  to  govern  the  militia  by  (for 
I  cannot  ascribe  it  to  any  other  cause),  they  are  obstinate, 
self-willed,  perverse,  of  little  or  no  service  to  the  people, 
and  very  burthensome  to  the  country.  Every  mean  indi- 
vidual has  his  own  crude  notions  of  things,  and  must  un- 
dertake to  direct.  If  his  advice  is  neglected,  he  thinks 
himself  slighted,  abused,  and  injured;  and,  to  redress  his 
wrongs  will  depart  for  home. 

"  I  found  the  garrisons  [militia]  very  weak  for  want  of 
men;  but  more  so  by  indolence  and  irregularity.  None 
I  saw  in  a  posture  of  defence,  and  few  that  might  not  be 
surprised  with  the  greatest  ease.  They  keep  no  guard, 
but  just  when  the  enemy  is  about.  So  that  the  neighbor- 
hood may  be  ravaged  by  the  enemy,  and  they  not  the 
wiser.  Of  the  ammunition  they  are  as  careless  as  of  the 
provisions,  firing  it  away  frequently  at  targets  for  wagers. 
Of  the  many  forts  which  I  passed  by,  I  saw  but  one  or 
two  that  had  their  captains  present,  they  being  absent 
chiefly  on  their  own  business. 

"  These  men  afford  no  assistance  to  the  unhappy  settlers 
who  are  driven  from  their  plantations,  either  in  securing 
their  harvests  or  gathering  in  their  corn.  The  wretched 
inhabitants  feel  their  insecurity  from  militia  preservation, 


360  WASHINGTON. 

who  are  slow  in  coming  to  their  assistance,  indifferent 
about  their  preservation,  unwilling  to  continue,  and  re- 
gardless of  everything  but  their  own  ease.  In  short,  they 
are  so  affected  with  approaching  ruin,  that  the  whole  back 
country  is  in  motion  towards  the  southern  colonies.  They, 
petitioned  me  in  the  most  earnest  manner  for  companies 
of  the  regiment.  But,  alas!  it  is  not  in  my  power  to 
assist  them  with  any,  except  I  leave  this  dangerous  quar- 
ter [about  Winchester]  more  exposed  than  they  are." 

It  will  be  noted  that  this  account  refers  to  forts  wholly 
in  charge  of  militia,  and  not  under  Washington's  direc- 
tion. He  points  out  the  contrast  between  service  such  as 
his  enlisted  soldiers  could  give  and  that  of  the  militia.  To 
a  large  extent  the  Governor  managed  the  militia  move- 
ments, and  Washington's  exposure  of  the  system  was  none 
too  pleasant  for  him.  He  sent  orders  to  Washington,  by 
a  letter  of  November  i8th,  resenting  criticism  that  seemed 
to  touch  him,  and  requiring  Washington  "to  march  im- 
mediately loo  men  to  Fort  Cumberland  from  the  forces  at 
Winchester,"  and  to  remain  there  himself  in  command. 
Washington  wrote  in  reply  from  Alexandria,  on  his  way 
down  to  Williamsburg,  November  24,  1756: 

'*  At  this  place  I  received  your  Honor's  letter  of  the 
i8th,  and  shall  take  care  to  pay  the  strictest  obedience 
to  your  orders,  and  the  opinion  [that  Fort  Cumberland 
should  not  be  given  up,  but  should  be  reinforced  from 
Winchester],  as  far  as  I  can.  The  detachment  ordered 
from  Winchester  exceeds,  I  beHeve  the  number  of  enHsted 
men  we  have  there;  and  the  drafts,  which  made  our 
strength  at  that  place  to  consist  of  about  160  men,  will 
leave  us  in  seven  days.  I  have  no  hope  of  enlisting  any,  nor 
prolonging  their  stay,  as  we  have  heretofore  engaged  those 
who  were  willing  to  serve.     However,  my  true  endeavors 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  361 

shall  be  strictly  aiding  for  this  (more  than  ever)  neces- 
sary purpose. 

"  I  am  very  sorry  if  any  expression  in  my  letter  should 
be  deemed  unmannerly.  I  have  endeavored  to  demean 
myself  in  that  proper  respect  due  to  superiors;  and  in  the 
instance  mentioned  I  can  truly  say,  so  far  from  intending 
a  charge  or  affront  of  any  kind,  it  was  distant  from  my 
thoughts. 

"  I  seem  also  to  be  reprimanded  for  giving  a  vague 
account  of  my  tour  to  the  southward.  I  was  rather  fear- 
ful of  blame  for  meddhng  with  matters  I  had  no  imme- 
diate concern  with  the  [the  militia  garrisons  in  the  quarter 
of  which  he  spoke  not  being  under  his  immediate  com- 
mand; yet  Dinwiddle  complained  that  he  had  not  reported 
the  officers  by  name,  the  same  as  if  they  had  been  under 
his  command;  and  he  testily  declared  it  ''unmannerly" 
to  speak  of  failure  with  the  Indians,  as  if  incompetent 
persons  had  been  sent  on  this  mission  by  himself].  I 
related  the  situation  of  our  frontiers  as  well  as  I  was  capa- 
ble, with  a  design,  from  which  I  have  never  intention- 
ally swerved,  to  serve  my  country;  and  am  sorry  to  find 
that  this,  and  my  best  endeavors  of  late,  meet  with  unfav- 
orable constructions.     What  it  proceeds  from  I  know  not. 

"  So  soon  as  I  march  from  Winchester,  which  will  im- 
mediately happen,  as  I  am  setting  out  thence,  I  shall  write 
your  Honor  a  more  distinct  account  of  the  situation  at 
that  place,  which  will  be  left  entirely  destitute  of  all  pro- 
tection, notwithstanding  it  now  contains  all  the  public 
stores  of  any  importance,  as  they  were  removed  from  Fort 
Cumberland,  and  in  the  most  dangerous  part  of  our  fron- 
tiers. The  works,  which  have  been  constructed,  and 
conducted  on,  with  infinite  pains  and  labor  will  be  unfin- 
ished and  exposed;  and  the  materials  for  completing  the 
building,  which  have  been  collected  with  unspeakable  dif- 


36S  WASHINGTON. 

ficulty  and  expense,  left  to  be  pillaged  and  destroyed  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  town;  because,  as  I  before  observed, 
lOO  men  will  exceed  the  number,  I  am  pretty  confident, 
which  we  have  there,  when  the  drafts  go  off.  So,  to  com- 
ply with  my  orders  (which  I  shall  literally  do,  if  I  can,) 
not  a  man  will  be  left  there  to  secure  the  works,  or  defend 
the  King's  stores." 

A  week  later,  December  2,  1756,  Washington  wrote  to 
the  Governor  from  Winchester  (Fort  Loudoun),  that 
"  wagons  and  provisions  in  readiness  to  go  up  with  this 
escort"  the  commissary  had  been  unable  to  supply;  and 
further  he  said: 

"  The  return  of  our  strength,  which  I  called  in  so  soon 
as  I  arrived,  is  herewith  sent,  signed  by  the  adjutant, 
amounting,  exclusive  of  the  drafts,  to  81  effectives,  in- 
cluding the  sick,  and  young  drummers,  who  were  sent 
here  to  learn. 

"  Your  Honor's  late  and  unexpected  order  has  caused 
the  utmost  terror  and  consternation  in  the  people,  and 
will,  I  fear,  be  productive  of  numberless  evils,  not  only 
to  this  place,  but  to  the  country  in  general,  who  seem  to 
be  in  the  greatest  dread  for  the  consequences.  The  stores 
of  every  kind  have  all  been  brought  from  Fort  Cumber- 
land, save  those  indispensably  necessary  there,  at  a  very 
great  expense,  and  lie  in  the  court-house  and  other  pub- 
lic buildings,  to  the  no  small  inconvenience  and  detri- 
ment of  the  county.  I  am  convinced,  if  your  Honor  were 
truly  informed  of  the  situation  of  this  place, —  in  every 
degree  our  utmost  and  most  exposed  frontier,  there  be- 
ing no  inhabitants  between  this  and  the  Branch,  and  none 
there  but  what  are  forted  in, —  you  would  not  think  it 
prudent  to  leave  such  a  quantity  of  valuable  stores  ex- 
posed to  the  insults  of  a  few;  for  a  very  few  indeed  might 
reduce  them,  and  the  town  too,  to  ashes. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  363 

"  In  the  next  place,  the  works,  which  have  been  begun 
and  continued  with  labor  and  hardship,  lie  open,  untena- 
ble, and  exposed  to  the  weather,  to  say  no  more;  and 
the  materials,  which  have  been  collected  with  cost  and 
infinite  difficulty,  to  the  mercy  of  every  pillager;  our  tim- 
ber and  scantling,  used  and  burnt  by  the  town's  people; 
our  plank,  which  has  been  brought  from  far,  stolen  and 
destroyed;  and  the  lime,  if  not  stolen,  left  to  be  wasted, 
&c.,  &c.  And,  this  is  not  the  worst.  A  building,  which 
in  time  might  and  would  have  been  very  strong  and  de- 
fensible, and  an  asylum  in  the  greatest  danger,  in  a  man- 
ner totally  abandoned.  As  the  case  now  stands,  we  have 
no  place  tenable,  no  place  of  safety;  all  is  exposed  and 
open  to  attacks;  and  by  not  having  a  garrison  at  this 
place,  no  convoys  can  get  up  to  us,  and  the  communication 
with  the  inhabitants  entirely  cut  off,  so  that  soldiers  and 
inhabitants  cannot  be  assisting  each  other. 

"  My  residing  at  Fort  Cumberland,  lying  more  ad- 
vanced, and  wide  of  all  other  forts,  will  prevent  me  from 
having  the  immediate  direction  of  any  but  that;  will  ren- 
der it  impossible  to  deliver  stores  regularly;  a  total  stag- 
nation of  business  must  ensue,  because  no  person  will  or 
can  come  to  me  there  [for  payment  of  contingent  ex- 
penses] ;  and  receiving  intelligence  and  distributing  orders, 
so  convenient  at  Winchester,  will  be  impossible. 

"  I  declare,  upon  my  honor,  that  I  am  not  loath  to 
leave  this,  but  had  rather  be  at  Fort  Cumberland  (if  I 
could  do  my  duty  there)  a  thousand  times  over;  for  I 
am  tired  of  the  place,  the  inhabitants,  the  life  I  lead  here ; 
and  if,  after  what  I  have  said,  you  should  think  it  neces- 
sary that  I  reside  at  that  place,  I  shall  acquiesce  with 
pleasure  and  cheerfulness,  and  be  freed  from  much  anxiety, 
plague,  and  business.     To  be  at  Fort  Cumberland  \yomi'- 


364  WASHINGTON. 

times  I  think  highly  expedient,  and  have  hitherto  done 
it.     Three  weeks  ago  I  came  from  that  place." 

December  19,  1756,  Washington  wrote  from  Fort  Lou- 
doun to  Dinwiddie: 

"Your  letter  of  the  loth  came  to  hand  the  15th;  in 
consequence  of  which  I  despatched  orders  immediately 
to  all  the  garrisons  on  the  Branch  to  evacuate  their  forts 
and  repair  to  Pearsall's,  where  they  would  meet  the  flour, 
&c.,  from  this  place  and  escort  it  to  Fort  Cumberland. 
1  expect  the  provisions  purchased  for  the  support  of  these 
forts,  and  now  lying  in  bulk,  will  be  wasted  and  destroyed, 
notwithstanding  I  have  given  directions  to  the  assistant 
commissary  on  the  Branch,  and  to  Waggener's  company, 
to  use  their  utmost  diHgence  in  collecting  the  whole,  and 
securing  them  where  his  company  is  posted.  An  escort, 
with  all  the  flour  we  have  been  able  to  procure,  sets  out 
from  this  on  Tuesday  next.  I  expect  to  depart  sooner 
myself,  after  leaving  directions  with  Captain  Mercer, 
whom  I  have  appointed  to  command  here,  and  shall  repair 
as  expeditiously  as  possible  to  Fort  Cumberland. 

"  I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  meaning  of  your 
Honor's  orders,  and  the  opinion  of  the  Council,  when  I 
am  directed  to  evacuate  all  the  stockade  forts,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  march  only  100  men  to  Fort  Cumber- 
land, and  to  continue  the  like  number  here  to  garrison 
Fort  Loudoun.  If  the  stockade  forts  are  all  abandoned, 
there  will  be  more  men  than  are  required  for  these  two 
purposes,  and  the  communication  between  them,  of  near 
80  miles,  will  be  left  without  a  settler,  unguarded  and 
exposed." 

In  his  orders  to  the  several  commanders  of  forts  now 
evacuated  Washington  wrote: 

"  I  heartily  commiserate  the  poor,  unhappy  inhabitants, 
left  by  this  means  exposed  to  every  excursion  of  a  mer- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  365 

ciless  enemy,  and  wish  it  were  in  my  power  to  offer  them 
better  support  than  good  wishes  (merely)  will  afford.. 
You  may  assure  the  settlement  that  this  unexpected,  and, 
if  I  may  be  allowed  to  say,  unavoidable  step  was  taken 
without  my  concurrence  and  knowledge;  that  it  is  an  ex- 
press order  from  the  Governor,  and  can  neither  be  evaded 
nor  delayed.  Therefore,  any  representations  to  me  of 
their  danger,  and  the  necessity  of  continuing  troops 
among  them,  will  be  fruitless;  I  have  inclination,  but  no 
power  left,  to  serve  them.  It  is  also  the  Governor's  or- 
der, that  the  forts  be  left  standing  for  the  inhabitants  to 
possess  if  they  think  proper." 

Washington's  letter  to  Dinwiddle  of  December  19th 
continued  as  follows : 

"  I  have  read  that  paragraph  in  Lord  Loudoun's  letter, 
which  your  Honor  was  pleased  to  send  me,  over  and 
over  again,  but  am  unable  to  comprehend  the  meaning 
of  it.  What  scheme  it  is,  I  was  carrying  into  execution 
without  waiting  advice,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know,  unless  it 
was  building  the  chain  of  forts  along  our  frontiers,  which 
I  not  only  undertook  conformably  to  an  act  of  Assembly, 
and  by  your  own  orders,  but,  with  respect  to  the  places, 
in  pursuance  of  a  council  of  war. 

"  I  see  with  much  regret  that  his  Excellency  Lord  Lou- 
doun seems  to  have  prejudged  my  proceedings,  without 
being  thoroughly  informed  what  were  the  springs  and  mo- 
tives that  have  actuated  my  conduct.  How  far  I  have 
mistaken  the  means  to  recommend  my  services,  I  know 
not,  but  I  am  certain  of  this,  that  no  man  ever  intended 
better,  or  studied  the  interest  of  his  country  with  more 
affectionate  zeal,  than  1  have  done. 

"  I  believe  we  are  the  only  troops  upon  the  continent, 
that  are  kept  summer  and  winter  to  the  severest  duty, 
with  the  least  respite  or  indulgence.     The  delay  of  the 


366  WASHINGTON. 

soldiers'  clothes  occasions  unaccountable  murmurs  and 
complaints,  and  I  am  very  much  afraid  we  shall  have  few 
men  left,  if  they  arrive  not  in  a  week  or  two.  Your  Honor 
would  be  astonished  to  see  the  naked  condition  of  the 
poor  wretches;  and  how  they  possibly  can  subsist,  much 
less  work,  in  such  severe  weather.  Had  we  but  blankets 
to  give  them,  or  anything  to  defend  them  from  the  cold, 
they  might  perhaps  be  easy." 

Of  the  same  date  as  this  letter  to  Dinwiddle,  December 
I9»  1756,  is  one  to  Speaker  Robinson^  in  which  Washing- 
ton said: 

"  All  the  stockade  forts  on  the  Branch  are  to  be  evacu- 
ated, and  in  course  ^all  the  settlements  abandoned,  except 
what  lie  under  the  immediate  protection  of  Captain  Wag- 
gener's  fort,  the  only  place  exempted  in  their  resolve. 
Surely  his  Honor  and  the  Council  are  not  fully  acquainted 
with  the  situation  and  circumstances  of  the  unhappy  fron- 
tiers, thus  to  expose  so  valuable  a  tract  as  the  Branch, 
ia  order  to  support  a  fortification  in  itself  of  very  little 
importance  to  the  inhabitants  or  the  colony.  The  former 
order  of  Council  would  have  endangered  not  only  the 
loss  of  Fort  Loudoun  [being  built  at  Winchester,  extra 
large  and  strong,  under  Washington's  own  direction],  the 
stores,  and  Winchester,  but  a  general  removal  of  the  set- 
tlers of  this  valley,  even  to  the  Blue  Ridge.  This  last 
hath  the  same  object  in  view,  vizt..  Fort  Cumberland,  and, 
to  maintain  it,  the  best  lands  in  Virginia  are  laid  open 
to  the  mercy  of  a  cruel  and  inhuman  enemy.  These  peo- 
ple have  long  struggled  with  the  dangers  of  savage  in- 
cursions, daily  soliciting  defence,  and  willing  to  keep  their 
ground.  To  encourage  them,  all  my  little  help  has  been 
administered,  and  they  seemed  satisfied  with  my  inten- 
tions, resolving  to  continue  while  any  probability  of  sup- 
port remained.     The  disposition  I  had  made  of  our  small 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  3G7 

regiment  gave  general  satisfaction  to  the  settlements,  and 
content  beg*an  to  appear  everywhere.  The  necessary 
measures  for  provisions  and  stores  were  agreeably  con- 
certed, and  every  regulation  established  for  the  season. 
But  the  late  command  reverses,  confuses,  and  incom- 
modes everything;  to  say  nothing  of  the  extraordinary 
expense  of  carriage,  disappointments,  losses,  and  altera- 
tions, which  must  fall  heavy  on  the  country.  Whence 
it  arises,  or  why,  I  am  truly  ignorant;  but  my  strongest 
representations  of  matters  relative  to  the  peace  of  the 
frontiers  are  disregarded  as  idle  and  frivolous;  my  propo- 
sitions and  measures  as  partial  and  selfish;  and  all  my 
sincerest  endeavors  for  the  service  of  my  country  per- 
verted to  the  worst  purposes.  My  orders  are  dark,  doubt- 
ful, and  uncertain;  today  approved,  tomorrow  condemned. 
Left  to  act  and  proceed  at  hazard,  accountable  for  the 
consequences,  and  blamed  without  the  benefit  of  defence, 
if  you  can  think  my  situation  capable  to  excite  the  small- 
est degree  of  envy,  or  afford  the  least  satisfaction,  the 
truth  is  yet  hid  from  you,  and  you  entertain  notions  very 
different  from  the  reality  of  the  case.  However,  I  am  de- 
termined to  bear  up  under  all  these  embarrassments  some 
time  longer,  in  hope  of  better  regulation  on  the  arrival 
of  Lord  Loudoun,  to  whom  I  look  for  the  future  fate  of 
Virginia. 

"  His  Lordship,  I  think,  has  received  impressions  tend- 
ing to  prejudice,  by  false  representation  of  facts,  if  I  may 
judge  from  a  paragraph  of  one  of  his  letters  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  on  which  is  founded  the  resolve  to  support 
Fort  Cumberland  at  all  events.  The  severity  of  the  sea- 
son, and  nakedness  of  the  soldiers,  are  matters  of  much 
compassion,  and  give  rise  to  infinite  complaints.  Nor  is 
it  possible  to  obviate  them,  unless  their  clothing  should 
come  in  immediately.     You  would  be  surprised  how  the 


3G8  WASHINGTON. 

poor  creatures  live,  much  more  how  they  can  do  duty. 
Had  we  but  blankets,  they  might  be  appeased  for  a  little 
time;  and  as  we  have  not,  I  fear  many  will  desert." 

In  reply  to  this  Speaker  Robinson  wrote  to  Washington : 

*'  I  am  truly  concerned  at  the  uneasiness  you  are  under 
in  your  present  situation,  and  the  more  so  as  I  am  sensi- 
ble you  have  too  much  reason  for  it.  The  resolution  of 
defending  Fort  Cumberland,  and  evacuating  the  other 
forts,  was  taken  before  I  knew  or  mistrusted  anything  of 
the  matter.  I  must  confess  I  was  not  a  little  surprised 
at  it,  and  took  the  liberty  to  expostulate  with  many  of  the 
Council  upon  it,  who  gave  me  in  answer,  that  Lord  Lou- 
doun had  insisted  that  Fort  Cumberland  should  be  pre- 
served, and,  as  we  had  so  few  troops,  it  could  not  be 
done  without  breaking  up  the  small  forts,  and  taking  the 
men  from  them. 

"  It  was  to  no  purpose  to  tell  them  that  our  frontiers 
would  thereby  be  entirely  exposed  to  our  cruel  and  savage 
enemy,  and  that  they  could  receive  no  protection  from 
Fort  Cumberland,  as  it  was  in  Maryland,  and  so  remote 
from  any  of  our  inhabitants; — and  further,  that  the  act 
of  Assembly,  which  gave  the  money  solely  for  the  de- 
fence and  protection  of  our  frontiers,  would  be  violated, 
and  the  money  applied  otherwise  than  the  Assembly  in- 
tended. Yet,  notwithstanding  all  I  could  say,  they  per- 
sisted in  their  resolution,  without  alleging  any  other  rea- 
son than  that  it  was  in  pursuance  of  Lord  Loudoun's 
desire. 

"  It  cannot  be  a  difficult  matter  to  guess,  who  was  the 
author  and  promoter  of  this  advice  and  resolution,  or  by 
whom  Lord  Loudoun  has  been  persuaded  that  the  place 
is  of  such  importance.  But  supposing  it  were  really  so, 
it  ought  to  be  defended  by  the  people  in  whose  province 
it   is,  or  at  least  at  the   expense  of  the   three   colonies 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  369 

jointly,  and  our  own  frontiers  not  left  exposed  for  the  de- 
fence of  a  place  from  which  we  cannot  receive  the  least  ad- 
vantage or  protection.  The  present  unhappy  state  of  our 
country  [Virginia  only  is  meant]  must  fill  the  mind  of  every 
well-wisher  to  it  with  dismal  and  gloomy  apprehensions; 
and  without  some  speedy  alterations  in  our  counsels, 
which  may  God  send,  the  fate  of  it  must  be  soon 
determined." 

About  this  time,  December,  1756,  Washington  ad- 
dressed a  formal  letter  to  Robinson,  inscribed,  ''To  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses,"  in  which  he  renewed 
his  protest  of  the  previous  May  (the  i8th)  against  what 
he  heard  by  several  letters,  "  that  the  Assembly  are  in- 
censed against  the  Virginia  regiment;  and  think  they  have 
cause  to  accuse  the  officers  of  all  inordinate  vices;  but 
more"  especially  of  drunkenness  and  profanity !  "  As  in 
his  letter  of  May  18,  1756,  Washington  protested  the 
abundant  proofs  going  "to  show  on  the  one  hand  that 
my  incessant  endeavors  have  been  directed  to  discounte- 
nance gaming,  drinking,  swearing,  and  other  vices,  with 
which  all  camps  too  much  abound;  while,  on  the  other, 
I  have  used  every  expedient  to  inspire  a  laudable  emula- 
tion in  the  officers,  and  an  unerring  exercise  of  Duty  in  the 
Soldiers. 

"  I  can  not  help  observing,  that  if  the  country  think  they 
have  cause  to  condemn  my  conduct,  and  have  a  person 
in  view  that  will  act,  that  he  may  do.  But  who  will  en- 
deavor to  act  more  for  her  Interests  than  I  have  done? 
It  will  give  me  the  greatest  pleasure  to  resign  a  com- 
mand which  I  solemnly  declare  I  accepted  against  my 
will. 

*'  I  know,  Sir,  that  inexperience  may  have  led  me  into 
innumerable  errors.  For  which  reason  I  should  think 
myself  an  unworthy  member  of  the  community  and 
24 


370  WASHINGTON. 

greatly  deficient  in  the  love  I  owe  my  country,  which  has 
ever  been  the  first  principle  of  my  actions,  were  I  to  re- 
quire more  than  a  distant  hint  of  its  dissatisfaction  to  re- 
sign a  commission  which  I  confess  to  you  I  am  no  ways 
fond  of  keeping. 

"  These  sentiments  I  communicate  to  you.  Sir,  not  only 
as  to  a  Gentleman  for  whom  I  entertain  the  highest  re- 
spect and  greatest  friendship;  but  also  as  a  member  of 
the  Assembly,  that  the  contents,  if  you  think  proper,  may 
be  communicated  to  the  whole.  For,  be  assured,  I  shall 
never  wish  to  hold  a  Commission,  when  it  ceases  to  be 
by  unanimous  consent. 

"  I  am  far  from  attempting  to  vindicate  the  characters 
of  all  the  officers.  There  are  some  who  have  the  seeds  of 
Idleness  too  strongly  instilled  into  their  constitution, 
either  to  be  serviceable  to  themselves,  or  beneficial  to  the 
Country.  Yet  even  those  have  not  missed  my  best  ad- 
vice :  nor  have  my  unwearied  endeavors  ever  been  want- 
ing to  serve  my  country  with  the  highest  integrity.  No 
sordid  views  have  influenced  my  conduct,  nor  have  the 
hopes  of  unlawful  gains  swerved  me  in  any  measure  from 
the  strictest  dictates  of  Honor!  I  have  diligently  sought 
the  public  welfare;  and  have  endeavored  to  inculcate  the 
same  principles  on  all  that  are  under  me." 

January  12,  1757,  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Din- 
widdie  from  Fort  Cumberland: 

"  We  have  as  many  men  at  work  here,  preparing  timber 
to  strengthen  the  works,  as  tools  will  supply;  but  I  wish 
I  had  been  ordered  to  build  a  new  fort  rather  than  at- 
tempt to  repair  the  old  one. 

"  No  more  forts  were  evacuated  than  were  requisite  to 
reinforce  this  Garrison  with  100  men,  and  to  continue  100 
at  Fort  Loudoun  (Winchester),  according  to  order.  The 
others  are  continued  at  their  former  posts." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  371 

In  February,  1757,  Washington  sent  to  Lord  Loudoun 
a  letter,  reviewing  at  considerable  length  the  course  of 
events,  and  his  own  experience,  since  the  outbreak  of  hos- 
tilities between  the  French  and  English.  The  document 
is  a  masterly  presentation,  fit  in  both  matter  and  style  to 
be  compared  with  the  ablest  state  papers  from  our  pres- 
ent Secretary  of  War  or  Secretary  of  State,  whose  work 
is  at  the  highest  level  of  intelligence,  judgment,  and  ability. 
As  Lord  Loudoun's  secretary  acknowledged  receiving  the 
letter  February  2y,  17S7>  it  must  have  been  written  just 
as  Washington  became  twenty-five  years  of  age.  The 
more  notable  paragraphs  of  this  expert  recital  of  war  pro- 
ceedings and  experiences  are  the  following: 

"  The  sums  of  money,  my  Lord,  which  have  been 
granted  by  this  colony  to  carry  on  war,  have  been  very 
considerable ;  and  to  reflect  to  what  little  purpose  is  mat- 
ter of  great  concern,  and  will  seem  surprising  to  those 
who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  causes,  and  the  con- 
fusion with  which  all  our  affairs  have  hitherto  been  con- 
ducted, owing  to  our  having  no  fixed  object  or  pursuing 
any  regular  system,  or  plan  of  operation. 

"As  I  have  studied  with  attention  and  care  the  nature 
of  the  service  in  which  we  are  engaged,  have  been  engaged 
therein  from  the  beginning  of  the  present  broils,  and  have 
been  an  eye-witness  to  all  the  movements  and  various 
proceedings,  I  beg  leave  to  ofifer  a  concise  and  candid 
account  of  our  circumstances  to  your  Lordship;  from 
which  many  errors  may  be  discovered,  that  merit  redress 
in  a  very  high  degree. 

"  It  was  not  until  it  was  too  late,  we  discovered  that 
the  French  were  on  the  Ohio;  or  rather,  that  we  could  be 
persuaded  they  came  there  with  a  design  to  invade  his 
Majesty's  dominions.  Nay,  after  I  was  sent  out  in  De- 
cember,   1753,   and   brought    undoubted   testimony   even 


372  WASHINGTON. 

from  themselves  of  their  avowed  design,  it  was  yet 
thought  a  fiction,  and  a  scheme  to  promote  the  interest  of 
a  private  company,  even  by  some  who  had  a  share  in  the 
government.  These  unfavorable  surmises  caused  great 
delay  in  raising  the  first  men  and  money,  and  gave  the 
active  enemy  time  to  take  possession  of  the  Fork  of  Ohio 
(which  they  now  call  Duquesne),  before  we  were  in  suffi- 
cient strength  to  advance  thither,  which  has  been  the  chief 
source  of  all  our  past  and  present  misfortunes.  For  by 
this  means,  the  French  getting  between  us  and  our  In- 
dian allies,  they  fixed  those  in  their  interests  who  were 
wavering,  and  obliged  the  others  to  neutrality,  'till  the 
unhappy  defeat  of  his  (late)  Excellency  General  Braddock. 

"The  troops  under  Colonel  Dunbar  going  into  quar- 
ters in  July,  and  the  inactivity  of  the  neighboring  col- 
onies, and  the  incapacity  of  this,  conspired  to  give  the 
French  great  room  to  exult,  and  the  Indians  little  reason 
to  expect  a  vigorous  offensive  war  on  our  side. 

"  Virginia,  it  is  true,  was  not  inactive  all  this  time ;  on 
the  contrary,  voted  a  handsome  supply  for  raising  men 
to  carry  on  the  war,  or,  more  properly,  to  defend  herself. 
But  even  in  this  she  signally  failed. 

"The  men  first  levied  to  repel  the  enemy  marched  for 
Ohio  the  beginning  of  April,  1754,  without  tents,  without 
clothes,  in  short  without  any  conveniences  to  shelter 
them,  in  that  remarkably  cold  and  wet  season,  from  the 
inclemency  of  the  weather,  or  to  make  the  service  tolerably 
agreeable.  In  this  state  did  they,  notwithstanding,  con- 
tinue, till  the  battle  of  the  Meadows,  in  July  following, 
never  receiving  in  all  that  space  any  subsistence;  and 
were  very  often  under  the  greatest  straits  and  difficulties 
for  want  of  provisions. 

"These  things  were  productive  of  great  murmurings 
and  discontent,  and  rendered  the  service  so  distasteful  to 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  373 

the  men  that,  not  being  paid  immediately  upon  coming 
in,  they  thought  themselves  bubbled,  and  that  no  reward 
for  their  services  was  ever  intended.  This  caused  great 
desertion;  and  the  deserters,  spreading  over  the  country, 
recounting  their  sufferings  and  want  of  pay,  which  rags 
and  poverty  sufficiently  testified,  fixed  in  the  mind  of  the 
populace  such  horrid  impressions  of  the  hardships  they 
had  encountered,  that  no  arguments  could  remove  these 
prejudices,  or  facilitate  the  recruiting  service. 

"  This  put  the  Assembly  upon  enacting  a  law  to  im- 
press vagrants,  which  added  to  our  difficulties,  for,  com- 
pelling these  abandoned  miscreants  into  the  service,  they 
embraced  every  opportunity  to  effect  their  escape,  gave 
a  loose  rein  to  their  vicious  principles,  and  invented  the 
most  unheard  of  stories  to  palliate  desertion  and  gain 
compassion;  in  which  they  not  only  succeeded,  but  ob- 
tained protection  also.  So  that  it  was  next  to  impossible, 
after  this,  to  apprehend  deserters,  while  the  civil  officers 
rather  connived  at  their  escape  than  aided  in  securing 
them. 

"  Thus  were  affairs  situated,  when  we  were  ordered,  in 
September,  1755,  to  recruit  our  force  to  1200  men.  'Tis 
easy  therefore  to  conceive,  under  these  circumstances, 
why  we  did  not  fulfil  the  order,  especially  when  the  offi- 
cers were  not  sufficiently  allowed  for  this  arduous  task. 
We  continued,  however,  using  our  endeavors  until  March 
following,   without   much  success. 

"  The  Assembly,  meeting  about  that  time,  came  to  a 
resolution  of  augmenting  our  numbers  to  1500  men,  by 
drafting  the  militia,  (who  were  to  continue  in  the  service 
until  December  only) ;  and  by  a  clause  in  the  act,  exempt- 
ing all  those  who  should  pay  ten  pounds,  our  numbers 
were  very  little  increased,  one  part  of  the  people  paying 
that  sum,  and  many  of  the  poorer  sort  absconding.     The 


374  WASHINGTON, 

funds  arising  from  these  forfeitures  were  thrown  into  the 
treasury;  whereas,  had  they  been  deposited  in  proper 
hands  for  recruiting,  the  money  might  have  turned  to 
good  account.  But  a  greater  grievance  than  either  of 
these  was  restraining  the  forces  from  marching  out  of 
the  colony,  or  acting  offensively,  and  ordering  them  to 
build  forts,  and  garrison  them,  along  our  frontiers  (of 
more  than  300  miles  in  extent).  How  equal  they,  or  any 
like  number,  are  to  the  task,  and  how  repugnant  a  de- 
fensive plan  is  to  the  true  interest  and  welfare  of  the  col- 
ony, I  submit  to  any  judge  to  determine  who  will  con- 
sider the  following  particulars. 

"  First,  that  erecting  forts  at  greater  distances  than  15 
or  18  miles,  or  a  day's  march  asunder,  and  garrisoning 
them  with  less  than  80  or  100  men,  is  not  answering  the 
intention. 

"  Indian  parties  are  generally  intermixed  with  some 
Frenchmen,  and  are  so  dexterous  at  skulking,  that  their 
spies,  lying  about  these  small  forts  for  some  days  and 
taking  a  prisoner,  make  certain  discoveries  of  the  strength 
of  the  garrison ;  and  then,  upon  observing  a  scouting  party 
coming  out,  will  first  cut  it  off,  and  afterwards  attempt 
the  fort.     Instances  of  this  have  lately  happened. 

"  Secondly,  our  frontiers  are  of  such  extent,  that  if  the 
enemy  were  to  make  a  formidable  attack  on  one  side,  be- 
fore the  troops  on  the  other  could  get  to  their  assistance, 
they  might  overrun  the  country. 

"  Thirdly,  what  it  must  cost  the  country  to  build  these 
forts,  and  to  remove  stores  and  provisions  into  them ;  and 

"  Fourthly,  and  lastly,  where  and  when  this  expense 
will  end.  For  we  may  be  assured,  if  we  do  not  endeavor 
to  remove  the  cause,  we  shall  be  as  liable  to  the  same 
incursions  seven  years  hence  as  now;  indeed  more  so. 
Because,  if  the  French  are  allowed  to  possess  those  lands 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  375 

in  peace  [to  the  westwards  and  on  the  Ohio],  they  will 
have  the  entire  command  of  the  Indians,  and  grow  stronger 
in  their  alliance ;  while  we,  by  our  defensive  schemes  and 
pusillanimous  behavior,  will  exhaust  our  treasury,  reduce 
our  strength,  and  become  the  contempt  of  these  savage 
nations,  who  are  every  day  enriching  themselves  with  the 
plunder  and  spoils  of  our  people. 

"  It  will  evidently  appear  from  the  whole  tenor  of  my 
conduct,  but  more  especially  from  reiterated  representa- 
tions, how  strongly  I  have  urged  the  Governor  and  Assem- 
bly to  pursue  different  measures,  and  to  convince  them, 
by  all  the  reasonings  I  was  capable  of  offering,  of  the  im- 
possibility of  covering  so  extensive  a  frontier  from  Indian 
incursions,  without  more  force  than  Virginia  can  main- 
tain. I  have  endeavored  to  demonstrate,  that  it  would 
require  fewer  men  to  remove  the  cause  than  to  prevent 
the  effects  while  the  cause  subsists.  This,  notwithstand- 
ing, was  the  measure  adopted,  and  the  plan  under  which 
we  have  acted  for  eight  months  past,  with  the  disagreeable 
reflection  of  doing  no  essential  service  to  our  country,  nor 
gaining  honor  to  ourselves,  or  reputation  to  our  regi- 
ment. However,  under  these  disadvantageous  restraints, 
the  regiment  has  not  been  inactive ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
has  performed  a  vast  deal  of  work,  and  has  been  very 
alert  in  defending  the  people,  which  will  appear  by  ob- 
serving that,  notwithstanding  we  are  more  contiguous  to 
the  French  and  their  Indian  allies,  and  more  exposed  to 
their  frequent  incursions  than  any  of  the  neighboring 
colonies,  we  have  not  lost  half  the  inhabitants  which 
others  have  done,  but  considerably  more  soldiers  in  their 
defence.  In  the  course  of  this  campaign,  since  March, 
I  mean  fMarch,  1756,  to  end  of  February,  1757,  a  full 
twelve  month],  (as  we  have  had  but  one  constant  cam- 
paign, and  continued  scene  of  action,  since  we  first  en- 


376  WASHINGTON. 

tered  the  service),  our  troops  have  been  engaged  in  up- 
wards of  twenty  skirmishes,  and  we  have,  had  near  an 
hundred  men  killed  and  wounded  —  from  a  small  regi- 
ment dispersed  over  the  country,  and  acting  upon  the 
defensive,  as  ours  is  by  order.  This,  I  conceive,  will  not 
appear  inconsiderable  to  those  who  are  in  the  least  de- 
gree acquainted  with  the  nature  of  this  service,  and  the 
posture  of  our  affairs;  however  it  may  seem  to  chimney 
corner  politicians,  who  are  thirsting  for  news,  and  expect- 
ing by  every  express  to  hear  in  what  manner  Fort  Du- 
quesne  was  taken  and  the  garrison  led  away  captive  by 
our  small  numbers ;  although  we  are  restrained  from  mak- 
ing the  attempt,  were  our  hopes  of  success  ever  so  rational ! 

"  The  first  men  raised,  if  I  rightly  remember,  were 
under  no  law;  if  any,  the  militia  law,  which  was  next  of 
kin  to  it.  But  under  this  we  remained  a  short  time,  and, 
instilling  notions  into  the  soldiers,  who  knew  no  better, 
that  they  were  governed  by  the  articles  of  war  [Governor 
Dinwiddie  held  this  view],  we  felt  little  inconvenience;  and 
the  next  campaign  we  were  joined  by  the  regulars,  and 
made  subject  to  their  laws.  After  the  regulars  left  us 
the  Assembly  passed  an  act  in  September,  as  before  men- 
tioned, to  raise  1200  men,  and,  in  order  (I  suppose)  to 
improve  upon  the  act  of  Parliament,  prepared  a  military 
code  of  their  own,  but  such  a  one  as  no  military  discipline 
could  be  preserved  by  while  it  lasted.  This  being  repre- 
sented by  the  most  pressing  and  repeated  remonstrances, 
induced  the  Assembly  to  pass  a  bill  in  October  following, 
for  one  year  only,  making  mutiny  and  desertion  death, 
but  took  no  cognizance  of  many  other  crimes  equally 
punishable  by  act  of  Parliament." 

After  mention  of  other  grievances,  especially  the 
wretched  character  of  the  service  rendered  by  the  militia, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  377 

and  the  effect  which  all  these  things  had  had  to  make 
him  sick  of  the  service,  Washington  said  in  conclusion : 

"  I  do  not  know,  my  Lord,  in  what  light  this  short  and 
disinterested  relation  may  be  received  by  your  Lordship; 
but  with  the  utmost  candor  and  submission  it  is  offered. 
It  contains  no  misrepresentations,  nor  aggravated  rela- 
tion of  facts,  nor  unjust  reflections. 

"  Virginia  is  a  country  young  in  war,  and,  till  the  break- 
ing out  of  these  disturbances,  has  remained  in  the  most 
profound  and  tranquil  peace,  never  studying  war  nor  war- 
fare. It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  imagined  that  she  can  fall 
into  proper  measures  at  once.  All  that  can  be  expected 
at  her  hands  she  cheerfully  offers, —  the  sinews  of  war, — 
and  those  only  want  your  Lordship's  ability  and  experi- 
ence to  be  properly  applied  and  directed." 

The  secretary  who  sent  an  acknowledgment  of  the  re- 
ceipt of  this  communication  wrote :  "  His  Lordship  seems 
very  much  pleased  with  the  accounts  you  have  given  him 
of  the  situation  of  affairs  to  the  southward." 

Lord  Loudoun  called  a  meeting  of  all  the  southern  gov- 
ernors at  Philadelphia,  and  Washington  attended  a  nine 
days'  conference,  March  15-24,  1757.  He  had  established 
himself  in  command  and  fort-building  at  Fort  Cumber- 
land, but  at  the  Philadelphia  conference  it  was  decided  to 
have  the  Virginia  troops  there  withdraw  as  soon  as  Mary- 
land could  garrison  the  fort,  and  this  permitted  Washing- 
ton to  return  to  Fort  Loudoun  (Winchester).  From  that 
place  he  wrote  to  Richard  Washington,  a  merchant  of 
London,  England,  April  15,  1757: 

"  I  have  been  posted  for  20  months  past  upon  our  cold 
an3  barren  frontiers,  to  perform,  I  think  I  may  say,  im- 
possibilities;  that  is,  to  protect  from  the  cruel  incursions 
of  a  crafty,  savage  enemy  a  line  of  inhabitants  of  more  than 
350  miles  in  extent,  with  a  force  inadequate  to  the  task." 


378  WASHINGTON. 

April  29,  1757,  Washington  sent  a  letter  to  Governor 
Dinwiddie,  in  which  he  carefully  reviewed  the  urgent 
needs  of  the  service,  and  the  situation  at  Winchester,  and 
inquired  in  regard  to  a  proposed  change  in  the  terms  of 
his  service,  which  had  been  30  shillings  a  day  as  pay,  and 
2  per  cent,  commissions  for  examining,  settling,  and  pay- 
ing off  accounts,  out  of  which  were  met  the  expenses  of 
his  table.  The  Governor  discontinued  the  2  per  cent, 
commission,  but  allowed  in  place  of  it  a  special  sum  of 
i20o  for  table  expenses,  etc. 

To    Robinson,    Speaker    of   the    House    of    Burgesses, 
Washington  wrote  May  30th,  and  again  June   10,   1757, 
urgently  representing  the  bad  system  in  use  for  securing 
and  employing  Indian  allies.     The  French  had  an  agent, 
with  an  ample  supply  of  Indian  goods,  whose  sole  busi- 
ness  it  was  to  manage   the   Indians   under  employment. 
"  Unless  some  person,"  said  Washington,  "  is  appointed 
to  manage  the  Indian  affairs  of  this  colony,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Governor,  or  the  southern  agent,  a  vast 
expense  and  but  Httle   advantage   will   accrue   from   the 
coming  of  these  Indians  among  us.     And  I  know  of  no 
person  so  well  qualified  for  an  undertaking  of  this  sort  as 
the  bearer.  Captain  Gist.     He  has  had  extensive  dealings 
with  the  Indians,  is  in  great  esteem  among  them,  well 
acquainted  with  their  manners  and  customs,  is  indefatiga- 
ble, and  patient,— most  excellent  qualities  indeed  where 
Indians  are  concerned.     And  for  his  capacity,  honesty,  and 
zeal,  I  dare  venture  to  engage."     The  "  southern  agent," 
a  Mr.  Atkin,  proposed  to  appoint  Gist  to  the  care  of  In- 
dian affairs  in  Virginia,   but  in  the   letter  of  June   loth, 
Washington  said :     "A  person  of  a  readier  pen,  and  hav- 
ing more  time  than  myself,  might  amuse  you  with  the 
vicissitudes  of  Indian  affairs  since  Mr.  Atkin  came  up." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  379 

On  another  matter  Washington  declared  to  Robinson  in 
this  letter  of  June  lo,  1757 : 

"  Unless  you  will  interest  yourself  in  sending  money  to 
me  to  discharge  the  public  debts,  I  must  inevitably  suffer 
very  considerably,  as  the  country  people  all  think  me 
pledged  to  them,  let  what  will  happen.  They  are  grown 
very  clamorous,  and  will  be  more  than  ever  incensed  if 
there  should  come  an  inadequate  sum,  and  that  sum  be 
appropriated  to  the  payment  of  the  soldiers. 

"  I  am  convinced  it  would  give  pleasure  to  the  Gov- 
ernor to  hear  that  I  was  involved  in  trouble,  however 
undeservedly,  such  are  his  dispositions  toward  me." 

Washington  found  himself  about  this  time  under  a  sec- 
ond commander,  besides  Governor  Dinwiddle,  a  Colonel 
Stanwix,  appointed  by  Lord  Loudoun  to  the  chief  com- 
mand of  the  forces  of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Vir- 
ginia. Dinwiddle  recognized  in  a  notification  to  Wash- 
ington that  he  was  to  take  his  orders  from  Stanwix,  and 
yet  he  went  on  giving  orders  himself  all  the  same.  Wash- 
ington wrote  to  Stanwix  June  15,  1757,  and  after  reporting 
a  success  against  a  small  French  and  Indian  party,  further 
said : 

"  Our  Assembly  have  granted  a  further  sum  of  i8o,ooo 
for  the  service  of  the  ensuing  year,  and  have  agreed  (I 
befieve)  to  complete  their  regiment  of  this  colony  to  1200 
men,  besides  three  companies  of  rangers  of  100  each.  Our 
strength,  since  the  detachment  to  South  Carolina  has  em- 
barked [200  men,  by  order  of  Lord  Loudoun],  is  reduced 
to  420  rank  and  file  only  and  these  much  weakened  by 
the  number  of  posts  we  hold." 

June  20th  Washington  wrote  to  Stanwix:  ''We  work 
on  this  Fort  [at  Winchester],  both  night  and  day,  intend- 
ing to  make  it  tenable  against  the  worst  event."  Again 
June  28th  he  wrote :    "  We  were  reinforced,  upon  the  late 


380  WASHINGTON. 

alarm,  by  170  militia  from  the  adjacent  counties,  one  half 
of  them  unarmed,  and  the  whole  without  ammunition  or 
provisions."  There  had  been,  June  i6th,  what  a  few  days 
proved  to  be  a  false  report,  that  a  large  French  and  Indian 
force  was  on  the  way  from  Fort  Duquesne  with  a  train 
of  artillery,  evidently  making  for  Fort  Cumberland,  and 
probably  aimed  at  Fort  Loudoun  at  Winchester. 

In  a  letter  of  July  11,  1757,  Washington  reported  to 
Governor  Dinwiddle  that  no  less  than  twenty-four  more 
of  the  drafted  men,  after  receiving  their  money  and  clothes, 
had  deserted  the  night  before ;  and  of  one  party  of  seven, 
two  had  been  captured.  It  seemed  to  Washington  that 
nothing  but  the  most  rigorous  measures  would  have  any 
effect,  and  he  asked  the  Governor  to  supply  him  with 
blank  warrants  to  execute  courts-martial  sentences.  By 
a  letter  of  July  20th  to  Governor  Sharpe,  of  Maryland, 
Washington  complained  that  many  deserters  from  Virginia 
were  harbored  in  Maryland,  and  that  "  some  in  authority, 
either  from  an  ill-placed  compassion,  or  from  that  spirit 
of  opposition  to  the  service  which  is  too  prevalent  through 
the  continent,  have  not  only  countenanced  those  deserters, 
but  made  use  of  your  Excellency's  name  for  that  purpose." 
To  Colonel  Stanwix  Washington  reported  July  15,  1757, 
that  out  of  400  drafts  that  he  had  received  114  had  de- 
serted ;  and  that  for  terror  of  the  rascals  he  had  caused  to 
be  erected  ''  a  Gallows  near  40  feet  high,"  and  was  deter- 
mined to  hang  two  or  three  on  it,  if  he  could  be  justified 
in  it.  To  the  same  Washington  reported  July  30th  that 
of  twenty-two  deserters  who  had  been  apprehended  he  had 
caused  two  to  be  hanged,  but  August  27th  he  wrote  to  the 
Governor : 

"As  your  Honor  was  pleased  to  leave  to  my  discretion 
to  punish  or  pardon  the  criminals,  I  have  resolved  on  the 
latter,  since  I  find  example  of  so  little  weight,  and  since 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  381 

those  poor  unhappy  criminals  have  undergone  no  small 
pain  of  body  and  mind,  in  a  dark  prison,  closely  ironed." 

September  17,  1757,  Washington  said  in  a  letter  to 
Dinwiddie :  "  Lenity,  so  far  from  producing  its  desired 
effects,  rather  emboldens  them  in  these  villainous  under- 
takings. One  of  those  who  were  condemned  to  be 
hanged,  deserted  immediately  upon  receiving  his  pardon. 
In  short,  they  tire  my  patience,  and  almost  weary  me  to 
death." 

Under  date  of  July  29,  1757,  Washington  issued  "  Gen- 
eral Instructions  to  all  the  Captains  of  Companies  "  —  a 
document  carefully  written,  from  exact  and  complete 
knowledge  of  military  duties,  and  of  the  special  needs  of 
the  Virginia  situation,  and  with  full  manifestation  of  the 
highest  ideals.  In  a  letter  of  July  30,  1757,  Washington 
asked  Colonel  Stanwix  for  leave  of  absence  August  ist,  to 
attend  a  "  meeting  of  the  executors  of  an  estate  that  I  am 
much  interested  in  a  dividend  of,  and  have  suffered  much 
already  by  the  unsettled  state  it  has  remained  in."  In 
reply  Stanwix  wrote  that  he  was  to  act  in  any  such  matter 
at  his  own  discretion,  without  asking  leave.  At  the  same 
time  Dinwiddie,  applied  to  in  the  same  way,  was  disagree- 
aj3le  enough  to  refuse  leave.  August  27th,  in  a  letter  to 
Dinwiddie,  Washington  said: 

"  It  is  with  concern  I  remark  that  my  best  endeavors 
lose  their  reward,  and  that  my  conduct,  although  I  have 
uniformly  studied  to  make  it  as  unexceptionable  as  I  could, 
does  not  appear  to  you  in  a  favorable  point  of  Tight." 

In  his  letter  of  September  17,  1757,  l^o  Dinwiddie,  Wash- 
ington said,  in  regard  to  an  application  made  directly  to 
the  Governor  for  a  commission  as  lieutenant  for  William 
Henry  Fairfax: 

"  If  you  please  to  bestow  it  on  Mr.  Fairfax,  I  should 
take  it  infinitely  kind  if  you  would  oblige  me  so  far  as  to 


382  WASHINGTON, 

send  the  commission  immediately  from  yourself  to  that 
gentleman.  For  although  I  esteem  him  greatly  on  ac- 
count of  his  father,  for  whose  memory  and  friendship  I 
shall  ever  retain  a  most  grateful  sense,  yet,  making  him 
lieutenant  over  many  old  ensigns  will  occasion  great  con- 
fusion in  the  corps,  and  bring  censure  on  me ;  far  the  offi- 
cers will  readily  conceive  that  my  friendship  and  partiality 
for  the  family  were  the  causes  of  it.  If  Mr.  Fairfax  would 
accept  an  ensigncy,  the  matter  might  pretty  easily  be  ac- 
commodated." 

In  a  second  letter  of  September  17th  to  Dinwiddie, 
Washington  enclosed  a  written  report  of  what  Mr.  Carter 
said  Mr.  Robinson  told  him  that  he  heard  Col.  Richard 
Corbin  say  that  Captain  Peachy  affirmed  to  him,  that  the 
alarm  about  Indians  on  the  frontier  was  a  baseless  scare, 
in  execution  of  a  scheme  by  which  Washington  sought 
to  cause  the  Assembly  to  levy  largely  both  in  men  and 
money.  The  communication  was  from  Peachy,  who  pro- 
nounced the  report  scandalous  and  its  author  a  scoundrel 
—  thus  leaving  the  matter  upon  Corbin  if  what  Carter 
said  Robinson  said,  could  be  trusted.  Washington  said 
of  it  to  Dinwiddie : 

"  I  should  take  it  infinitely  kind  if  your  Honor  woul^i 
please  to  inform  me  whether  a  report  of  this  nature  was 
ever  made  to  you ;  and,  in  that  case,  who  was  the  author 
of  it? 

"  It  is  evident,  from  a  variety  of  circumstances,  and 
especially  from  the  change  in  your  Honor's  conduct 
towards  me,  that  some  person,  as  well  inclined  to  detract, 
but  better  skilled  in  the  art  of  detraction,  than  the  author 
of  the  above  stupid  scandal,  has  made  free  with  my  char- 
acter. For  I  cannot  suppose  that  malice  so  absurd,  so 
barefaced,  so  diametrically  opposite  to  truth,  to  common 
policy,   and,  in  short,  to  everything  but  villainy,  as  the 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  383 

above  report  is,  could  impress  you  with  so  ill  an  opinion 
of  my  honor  and  honesty. 

"  If  it  be  possible  that  Colonel  Corbin  —  (for  my  belief 
is  staggered,  not  being  conscious  of  having  given  the  least 
cause  to  any  one,  much  less  to  that  gentleman,  to  reflect 
so  grossly),  I  say,  if  it  be  possible  that  Colonel  Corbin 
could  descend  so  low  as  to  be  the  propagator  of  this  story, 
he  must  either  be  vastly  ignorant  in  the  state  of  affairs  in 
this  county  [Frederick]  at  that  time,  or  else  he  must  sup- 
pose that  the  whole  body  of  the  inhabitants  had  combined 
with  me  in  executing  the  deceitful  fraud. 

It  is  uncertain  in  what  light  my  services  may  have 
appeared  to  your  Honor;  but  this  I  know,  and  it  is  the 
highest  consolation  I  am  capable  of  feeUng,  that  no 
man,  that  ever  was  employed  in  a  public  capacity,  has 
endeavored  to  discharge  the  trust  reposed  in  him  with 
greater  honesty,  and  more  zeal  for  the  country's  interest, 
than  I  have  done ;  and  if  there  is  any  person  living,  who 
can  say  with  justice,  that  I  have  ofifered  any  intentional 
wrong  to  the  public,  I  will  cheerfully  submit  to  the  most 
ignominious  punishment  that  an  injured  people  ought  to 
inflict.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  hard  to  have  my  character 
arraigned,  and  my  actions  condemned,  without  a  hearing. 

"  I  must  therefore  again  beg  in  more  plain,  and  in  very 
earnest  terms,  to  know  if  Col.  Corbin  has  taken  the  liberty 
of  representing  my  character  to  your  Honor  with  such 
ungentlemanly  freedom  as  the  letter  [of  Capt.  Peachy] 
implies." 

Dinwiddie  replied  that  the  report  to  Washington's  dis- 
credit he  had  never  heard  of  before;  that  he  could  not 
think  Colonel  Corbin  guilty  of  having  started  it ;  and  that  he 
had  never  known  of  anything  to  justify  it.  "  But»  you 
know,"  Dinwiddie  added,  "  I  had  great  reason  to  suspect 
you  of  ingratitude,  which  I  am  convinced  your  own  con- 


384  WASHINGTON. 

science  and  reflection  must  allow  I  had  reason  to  be  angry; 
but  this  I  endeavor  to  forget.  As  I  have  his  Majesty's 
leave  to  go  for  England,  I  propose  leaving  this  in  Novem- 
ber, and  I  wish  my  successor  may  show  you  as  much 
friendship  as  I  have  done." 

To  Captain  Peachy  Washington  wrote  September  i8, 
1757: 

"  In  answer  to  that  part  [of  your  letter]  which  relates 
to  Colonel  Corbin's  gross  and  infamous  reflections  on  my 
conduct  last  spring,  it  will  be  needless,  I  dare  say,  to  ob- 
serve further  at  this  time,  than  that  the  liberty  which  he 
has  been  pleased  to  allow  himself  in  sporting  with  my 
character,  is  little  else  than  a  comic  entertainment,  discov- 
ering at  one  view  his  passionate  fondness  for  your  friend, 
his  inviolable  love  of  truth,  his  unfathomable  knowledge, 
and  the  masterly  strokes  of  his  wisdom  in  displaying  it." 
To  Governor  Dinwiddie  Washington  wrote  from  Fort 
Loudoun  (Winchester)  September  24,  1757: 

"  The  inhabitants  of  this  valuable  and  fertile  valley  are 
terrified  beyond  expression  [because  of  "  the  late  depreda- 
tions in  this  neighborhood"].  Some  have  abandoned 
their  plantations,  and  many  are  packing  up  their  most 
valuable  effects  in  order  to  follow  them.  Another  irrup- 
tion into  the  heart  of  this  settlement  will,  I  am  afraid, 
be  of  fatal  consequence  to  it.  I  was  always  persuaded, 
and  almost  every  day  affords  new  matter  for  confirming 
me  in  the  opinion,  that  the  enemy  can,  with  the  utmost  fa- 
cility, render  abortive  every  plan  which  can  be  concerted, 
upon  our  present  system  of  defence;  and  that  the  only 
method  of  effectually  defending  such  a  vast  extent  of 
mountains  covered  with  thick  woods,  as  our  frontiers, 
against  such  an  enemy,  is  by  carrying  the  war  into  their 
country.  And  I  think  I  may,  without  assuming  uncom- 
mon penetration,  venture  to  affirm,  that,  unless  an  expe- 


li'-i-SiJiMji  UN    J  A  KING   COMMAND   Ut    fJlE   ARMY 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  385 

dition  is  carried  on  against  the  Ohio  next  spring,  this 
country  will  not  be  another  year  in  our  possession." 

October  5th  Washington  further  said:  "  As  I  have  neg- 
lected nothing  in  my  power,  it  is  very  evident  that  nothing 
but  vigorous  offensive  measures  (next  campaign)  can 
save  the  country,  at  least  all  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  from 
inevitable  desolation."     And  of  a  personal  matter  he  said: 

"  I  do  not  know  that  I  ever  gave  your  Honor  cause 
to  suspect  me  of  ingratitude,  a  crime  I  detest,  and  would 
most  carefully  avoid.  If  an  open,  disinterested  behavior 
carries  offence,  I  may  have  offended;  because  I  have  all 
along  laid  it  down  as  a  maxim,  to  represent  facts  freely 
and  impartially,  but  no  more  to  others  than  I  have  to 
you.  Sir.  If  instances  of  my  ungrateful  behavior  had 
been  particularized,  I  would  have  answered  to  them.  But 
I  have  long  been  convinced,  that  my  actions  and  their 
motives  have  been  mahciously  aggravated." 

To  Colonel  Stanwix  Washington  wrote,  October  8, 
1757,  from  Fort  Loudoun: 

"  I  exert  every  means  in  my  power  to  protect  a  much 
distressed  country,  but  it  is  a  task  too  arduous.  To  think 
of  defending  a  frontier,  as  ours  is,  of  more  than  350  miles 
extent,  with  only  700  men,  is  vain  and  idle,  especially 
when  that  frontier  lies  more  contiguous  to  the  enemy 
than  any  other.  I  am,  and  have  for  a  long  time  been, 
fully  convinced  that,  if  we  continue  to  pursue  a  defensive 
plan,  the  country  must  be  inevitably  lost." 

October  9,  1757,  Washington  wrote  to  Dinwiddie  of 
the  lawless  thieving  practiced  by  the  Tippling-House  keep- 
ers, receiving  and  concealing  stores,  arms,  etc.,  belonging 
to  the  regiment,  and  of  the  rascally,  illegal  conduct  of  the 
justices  in  giving  no  redress  through  the  courts.  Again, 
October  24th,  he  wrote  to  Dinwiddie  of  the  inevitable 
destruction  of  the  country  about  Winchester  unless  a  new 

25 


386  WASHINGTON. 

policy  could  be  put  in  execution.  To  Speaker  Robinson 
he  urged  the  same  views  in  a  letter  of  October  25th.  His 
last  letter  to  Dinwiddie  was  one  of  November  5th,  in  re- 
gard to  Indian  affairs  under  the  very  bad  system  admin- 
istered by  the  agent,  Atkin.  Dinwiddie  sailed  for  Eng- 
land in  January,  after  Washington  had  gone  home  to 
Mount  Vernon  under  a  severe  indisposition  which  brought 
him'  so  low  with  dysentery  and  fever  that  it  was  more 
than  four  months  before  he  was  able  to  resume  his  com- 
mand. Speaker  Robinson  wrote  to  him  in  reply  to  his 
letter  of  October  25th: 

"  We  have  not  yet  heard  who  is  to  succeed  him.  God 
grant  it  may  be  somebody  better  acquainted  with  the  un- 
happy business  we  have  in  hand,  and  who,  by  his  con- 
duct and  counsel,  may  dispel  the  cloud  now  hanging  over 
this  distressed  country.  Till  that  event,  I  beg,  my  dear 
friend,  that  you  will  bear,  so  far  as  a  man  of  honor  ought, 
the  discouragements  and  slights  you  have  too  often  met 
with,  and  continue  to  serve  your  country,  as  I  am  con- 
vinced you  have  always  hitherto  done,  in  the  best  man- 
ner you  can  with  the  small  assistance  afforded  you."] 

The  laborious  and  unintermitted  devotion  to  his  duties 
proved  at  the  close  of  the  year  1757  so  injurious  to  the 
health  of  Washington  that  he  yielded  to  the  entreaties  of 
his  physician,  withdrew  from  the  army,  and  retired  to 
Mount  Vernon  (1757).  But  it  was  not  his  fortune  to 
enjoy,  even  there,  a  refreshing  repose  that  might  reno- 
vate his  strength.  Prostrated  by  a  lingering  and  debili- 
tating fever  he  was  disqualified  for  duty,  and  he  was 
unable  to  return  to  the  army  until  after  the  lapse  of  four 
months. 

It  was  a  source  of  pleasing  reflection  to  him  however  as 
he  lay  on  his  bed  of  sickness,  or  enjoyed  the  calm  delights 
of   his  retreat  at    Mount  Vernon,  that    his  efforts  in  his 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  387 

country's  cause  had  not  been  altogether  ineffectual.  He 
had  traversed  the  whole  frontier  and  become  familiarly 
acquainted  with  its  condition  and  its  wants;  he  had  suc- 
ceeded in  awakening  a  general  and  deep  feeling  in  be- 
half of  the  suffering  borderers;  he  had  vindicated  himself 
from  the  unfavorable  insinuations  of  s^ecret  enemies;  he 
had  induced  the  Assembly  to  erect  at  Winchester  a  large 
fort  called  Fort  Loudoun,  in  honor  of  the  British  com- 
mander-in-chief; and  he  had  promptly  and  vigorously 
constructed  the  military  works  proposed  by  the  Burgesses, 
visiting  these  works  in  person,  and  amid  many  perils  in 
the  wilderness  bringing  his  labors  in  great  part  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue.  He  had  also,  by  his  earnest  recommenda- 
tion, directed  the  public  mind  to  the  importance  of  cap- 
turing Fort  Duquesne  and  to  the  necessity  of  speedy 
measures  for  this  purpose. 

In  his  retirement  his  mind  dwelt  continually  upon  the 
interesting  subjects  associated  with  the  defenses  of  the 
frontier,  and  especially  upon  the  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne 
as  a  grand  climacteric.  In  the  progress  of  events,  during 
the  next  year,  it  was  his  good  fortune  and  great  joy  to  see 
that  stronghold  of  his  country's  cruel  enemies  reduced,  and 
to  take  an  active  and  prominent  part  in  measures  which  re- 
stored peace  and  prosperity  to  those  regions  where  a  savage 
and  merciless  warfare  had  so  long  been  spreading  desolation. 

[Sparks  remarks  as  follows  on  the  campaign  from  which 
Washington  retired  worn  out  and  dangerously  sick: 

"  The  campaign,  being  a  defensive  one,  presented  no 
opportunities  for  acquiring  glory;  but  the  demands  on 
the  resources  and  address  of  the  commander  were  not  the 
less  pressing.  The  scene  varied  little  from  that  of  the 
preceding  year,  except  that  the  difficulties  were  more  nu- 
merous and  complicatd.  There  were  the  same  unceasing 
incursions  of  the  savages,  but  more  sanguinary  and  terri- 


388  WASHINGTON. 

fying,  the  same  tardiness  in  the  enlistments,  the  same 
troubles  with  the  militia,  the  same  neglect  in  supplying 
the  wants  of  the  army;  and  on  every  side  were  heard 
murm>urs  of  discontent  from  the  soldiers,  and  cries  of  dis- 
tress from  the  inhabitants. 

"  And  what  increased  these  vexations  was,  that  the  gov- 
ernor, tenacious  of  his  authority,  intrusted  as  little  power 
as  possible  to  the  head  of  the  army.  Totally  unskilled 
in  military  affairs,  and  residing  two  hundred  miles  from 
the  scene  of  action,  he  yet  undertook  to  regulate  the  prin- 
cipal operations,  sending  expresses  back  and  forth,  and 
issuing  vague  and  contradictory  orders,  seldom  adapted  to 
circumstances,  frequently  impracticable.  This  absurd  in- 
terference was  borne  with  becoming  patience  and  forti- 
tude by  the  Commander-in-Chief;  but  not  without  keen 
remonstrance  to  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  and  other 
friends,  against  being  made  responsible  for  military  events, 
while  the  power  to  control  them  was  withheld,  or  so 
heavily  clogged  as  to  paralyze  its  action.  The  patriotic 
party  in  the  legislature  sympathized  with  him,  and  would 
gladly  have  procured  redress,  had  not  the  governor  pos- 
sessed prerogatives,  which  they  could  not  encroach  upon, 
and  which  he  seemed  ambitious  to  exercise;  the  more  so, 
perhaps,  as  the  leaders  of  the  majority,  learning  his  foible 
in  this  respect,  had  thwarted  many  of  his  schemes,  and 
especially  had  assumed  to  themselves  the  appropriation  of 
the  public  moneys,  which  by  ancient  usage  had  been  un- 
vder  the  direction  of  the  Governor  and  Council." 

The  muddle  created  by  the  senseless  meddHng  of  Din- 
Viddie,  after  Colonel  Stanwix  had  come  into  chief  British 
command,  and  the  contrast  between  Dinwiddle  and  Stan- 
wix, are  brought  out  by  Sparks  in  the  following: 

"  During  the  summer  of  1757,  Colonel  Washington  was 
in  some   sort  under  the  command  of   Colonel  Stanwix, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  389 

but  to  what  extent  he  did  not  know,  as  he  had  received 
no  instructions  on  that  head,  and  the  Governor  continued 
to  issue  his  orders  as  formerly.  At  length  the  Governor 
wrote  as  follows ; — '  Colonel  Stanwix  being  appointed 
Commander-in-Chief  [of  the  middle  and  southern  prov- 
inces], you  must  submit  to  his  orders,  without  regard  to 
any  you  may  receive  from  me;  he,  being  near  the  place, 
can  direct  affairs  better  than  I  can.'  This  was  peculiarly 
agreeable  to  the  Commander  of  the  Virginia  regiment; 
for  Colonel  Stanwix  was  a  military  man,  and  a  gentle- 
man of  an  elevated  and  liberal  spirit.  His  letters  bear  a 
high  testimony  to  his  good  sense,  as  well  as  to  the  delicacy 
of  his  feelings,  the  amenity  of  his  temper,  and  the  gener- 
osity of  his  character. 

"  Notwithstanding  the  above  direction,  the  Governor  did 
not  cease  to  write,  give  commands,  require  returns,  and 
utter  complaints  as  usual,  thereby  increasing  the  endless 
perplexities  and  bewildering  doubts,  with  which  Colonel 
Washington  was  harassed  in  all  his  plans  and  operations. 

"  He  had  requested  leave  of  absence  from  Governor  Din- 
widdie  for  a  few  days  to  attend  to  certain  private  affairs,  of 
a  very  pressing  nature,  at  Mount  Vernon.  He  afterwards 
repeated  this  request,  and,  as  he  seemed  to  be  under  two 
commanders,  he  thought  it  expedient  to  consult  them 
both.  The  Governor  answered; — 'As  to  the  settlement 
of  your  brother's  estate,  your  absence  on  that  account 
from  Fort  Loudoun  must  be  suspended,  till  our  affairs 
give  a  better  prospect.'  Colonel  Stanwix  replied  to  the 
same  request; — 'More  than  two  weeks  ago  I  answered 
your  letter,  in  which  you  mentioned  its  being  convenient 
to  your  private  affairs  to  attend  to  them  for  a  fortnight. 
In  that  answer  I  expressed  my  concern,  that  you  should 
think  such  a  thing  necessary  to  mention  to  me,  as  I  am 
sure  you  would  not  choose  to  be  out  of  call,  should  the 


390  WASHINGTON. 

service  require  your  immediate  attendance;  and  I  hope 
you  will  always  take  that  liberty  upon  yourself,  which  I 
hope  you  will  now  do." 

In  closing  the  Dinwiddie  chapter  of  Washington's  ca- 
reer Sparks  remarks  very  justly: 

"As  a  school  of  experience  it  ultimately  proved  ad- 
vantageous to  him.  It  was  his  good  fortune,  likewise,  to 
gain  honor  and  reputation  even  in  so  barren  a  field,  by 
retaining  the  confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens,  and  ful- 
filling the  expectations  of  his  friends  in  the  legislature, 
who  had  pressed  upon  him  the  command,  and  urged  his 
holding  it. 

"  But  the  fatigue  of  body  and  mind,  which  he  suffered 
from  the  severity  of  his  labors,  gradually  undermined  his 
strength,  and  his  physician  insisted  on  his  retiring  from 
the  army.  He  went  to  Mount  Vernon,  where  his  disease 
settled  into  a  fever,  and  reduced  him  so  low,  that  he  was 
confined  four  months,  till  the  ist  of  March,  1758,  before 
he  was  able  to  resume  his  command."] 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CAHPAIGN  OF  1758— WASHINGTON'S  MARRIAGE. 

1758. 

WASHINGTON  was  at  Fredericksburg,  January 
31,  1758,  and  wrote  to  his  cordial  friend,  John 
Blair,  president  of  the  Council  and  acting  Gov- 
ernor, in  regard  to  the  inopportune  arrival  then  expected 
of  a  considerable  party  of  Indians.  Twenty  days  later 
he  wrote  again: 

**  I  set  out  for  Williamsburg  the  day  after  the  date  of 
my  letter,  but  found  I  was  unable  to  proceed,  my  fever 
and  pain  increasing  upon  me  to  a  high  degree;  and  the 
physicians  assured  me,  that  I  might  endanger  my  life  by 
prosecuting  the  journey." 

From  Mount  Vernon,  March  4,  1758,  Washington  wrote: 

"  I  have  never  been  able  to  return  to  my  command, 
since  I  wrote  to  you  last,  my  disorder  at  times  returning 
obstinately  upon  me,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  all  the  sons 
of  yEsculapius,  whom  I  have  hitherto  consulted.  At  cer- 
tain periods  I  have  been  reduced  to  great  extremity,  and 
have  now  too  much  reason  to  apprehend  an  approaching 
decay,  being  visited  with  several  symptoms  of  such  a 
disease. 

"  I  am  now  under  a  strict  regimen,  and  shall  set  out 
tomorrow  for  WilHamsburg  to  receive  the  advice  of  the 
best  physicians  there.  My  constitution  is  certainly  greatly 
impaired,  and  as  nothing  can  retrieve  it  but  the  greatest 
care  and  the  most  circumspect  conduct;  as  I  now  have 

(391) 


39»  WASHINGTON. 

no  prospect  left  of  preferment  in  the  military  way;  and 
as  I  despair  of  rendering  that  immediate  service  which 
my  country  may  require  from  the  person  commanding 
their  troops,  I  have  some  thoughts  of  quitting  my  com- 
mand, and  retiring  from  all  public  business,  leaving  my 
post  to  be  filled  by  some  other  person  more  capable  of 
the  task,  and  who  may,  perhaps,  have  his  endeavors 
crowned  with  better  success  than  mine  have  been."] 

The  campaign  of  1758  was  destined  to  terminate  Wash- 
ington's doubts  and  anxieties.  In  April  of  this  year  he 
was  in  command  at  Fort  Loudoun  with  improved  health. 
His  old  enemy,  the  wrong-headed  and  pragmatical  Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie,  had  yielded  his  place  to  Mr.  Francis  Fau- 
quier, until  whose  arrival  from  England  an  old  friend  of 
Washington,  Mr.  John  Blair,  president  of  Council,  was  act- 
ing Governor. 

A  change  not  less  auspicious  had  taken  place  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  affairs  in  the  mother  country.  The  activity 
of  the  French  and  the  supineness  of  the  English  in  the 
recent  campaigns  in  America  seemed  to  threaten  the  loss 
of  the  Colonies.  The  British  nation  had  become  alarmed 
and  indignant  and  the  King  had  found  it  necessary  to 
change  his  councils.  At  the  head  of  the  new  ministry  he 
placed  the  celebrated  William  Pitt,  afterward  Earl  of  Chat- 
ham, pre-eminently  a  man  of  action,  who  from  the  humble 
post  of  ensign  in  the  Guards  had  raised  himself  to  his  pres- 
ent elevated  position.  Under  his  administration,  public 
confidence,  not  only  in  England,  but  in  the  Colonies,  at  once 
revived  and  all  were  inspired  with  new  life  and  vigor.  He 
was  equally  popular  in  both  hemispheres,  and  so  promptly 
did  the  Governors  of  the  northern  Colonies  obey  the  requi- 
sitions of  his  circular  letter  of  1757  that  by  May,  in  the  fol- 
lowing year  Massachusetts  had  7,000,  Connecticut  5,000, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  393 

and  New  Hampshire  3,000  troops  prepared  to  take  the 
field.*  The  authorities  of  the  mother  country  were  not  less 
active.  While  British  fleets  were  blockading  or  capturing 
the  French  armaments  intended  for  America,  Admiral  Bos- 
cawen  was  dispatched  to  Halifax  with  a  formidable  squad- 
ron of  ships  and  an  army  of  12,000  men.  The  imbecile  and 
dilatory  Lord  Loudoun  was  recalled  and  General  Aber- 
crombie  placed  in  the  chief  command  who,  early  in  the 
spring,  was  ready  to  enter  upon  the  campaign  with  an  army 
of  50,000  men,  the  largest  ever  embodied  in  America. 

Three  points  of  attack  were  marked  out  for  this  cam- 
paign :  The  first,  Louisburg ;  the  second,  Ticonderoga  and 
Crown  Point ;  and  the  third.  Fort  Duquesne.  In  the  last 
of  these  expeditions,  Washington,  to  his  great  joy,  was 
destined  to  take  a  part ;  but  as  its  success  was  entirely  de- 
pendent, in  the  sequel,  on  the  operations  of  the  other  two, 
it  becomes  necessary  first  to  notice  them  somewhat  in  detail. 

The  expedition  against  Louisburg  was  conducted  by  Gen- 
eral Amherst,  assisted  by  the  remarkable  military  skill  and 
daring  enterprise  of  General  Wolfe,  destined,  in  the  next 

*  The  arrangements  made  by  Pitt  with  reference  to  the  relative 
rank  of  royal  and  provincial  troops,  and  the  relative  expenses  of 
the  crown  and  the  colonies,  were  not  less  satisfactory  than  his 
prompt  and  energetic  measures  for  carrying  on  the  campaign. 

"  He  stipulated  that  the  colonial  troops  raised  for  this  purpose 
should  be  supplied  with  arms,  ammunition,  tents,  and  provisions 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  regular  troops,  and  at  the  King's  ex- 
pense; so  that  the  only  charge  to  the  Colonies  would  be  that  of 
levying,  clothing,  and  paying  the  men.  The  Governors  were  also 
authorized  to  issue  commissions  to  provincial  officers,  from  col- 
onels downward,  and  these  officers  were  to  hold  rank  in  the  united 
army  according  to  their  commissions.  Had  this  liberal  and  just 
system  been  adopted  at  the  outset,  it  would  have  put  a  very  different 
face  upon  the  military  affairs  of  the  Colonies." —  Sparks's  "  Writings 
of  Washington,"  vol.  H,  p.  289,  note. 


394  WASHINGTON. 

campaign,  to  become  the  conqueror  of  Quebec.  Richard 
Montgomery,  whose  immortality  was  afterward  won  under 
other  auspices  before  the  same  city,  also  served  in  this  ex- 
pedition as  a  subaltern,  and  gained  promotion  from  Wolfe 
for  his  gallantry. 

On  the  28th  of  May  (1758)  the  expedition  sailed  from 
Halifax,  the  fleet  under  command  of  Admiral  Boscawen 
being  composed  of  twenty  ships-of-the-Hne  and  eighteen 
frigates,  and  the  army,  under  General  Amherst,  of  14,000 
men.  They  arrived  in  Cabarus  bay  on  the  2d  of  June. 
The  garrison  of  Louisburg,  commanded  by  the  Chevalier 
Drucour,  an  officer  of  courage  and  experience,  was  com- 
posed of  2,500  regulars,  aided  by  600  militia  and  Indians. 
The  harbor  being  secured  by  five  ships-of-the-line,  one  fifty- 
gun  ship,  and  five  frigates,  three  of  which  were  sunk  across 
the  mouth  of  the  basin,  it  was  found  necessary  to  land  at 
some  distance  from  the  town.  Prevented  from  landing  by 
a  heavy  surf  until  the  8th,  the  brave  Wolfe  then  led  the  army 
in  three  divisions  of  boats  to  nearly  the  same  place  where 
the  small  army  of  New  England  men,  under  the  command 
of  the  able  and  courageous  Lieut.-Gen.  William  Pepperrell, 
had  landed  to  besiege  and  capture  Louisburg  in  1745. 

The  enemy  were  arrayed  along  the  shore,  and,  after  mak- 
ing some  resistance  to  the  impetuous  onset  of  Wolfe,  fled 
to  the  city.  The  British  lost  in  killed  or  drowned  forty- 
three  regulars  and  six  provincials,  and  the  French  lost  two 
lieutenants  killed  and  seventy  prisoners.  Two  large  guns 
and  thirty-two  small  ones,  planted  along  the  shore,  were 
taken,  with  their  ammunition.  The  French  destroyed  the 
fortress  to  which  they  had  given  the  name  of  Royal  Bat- 
tery and  called  in  their  outposts.  The  artillery  and  stores 
were  now  brought  on  shore,  and  General  Wolfe  with  1,800 
men  marched  around  Green  Hill  and  the  northeast  harbor 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  395 

to  the  lighthouse,  which  the  enemy  deserted,  destroying 
their  cannon.  Several  strong  batteries  were  forthwith 
added  to  those  erected  by  the  enemy  on  this  spot,  which 
commanded  the  eastern  side  of  the  harbor.  Approaches 
were  also  made  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  town  and  the 
siege  was  steadily  though  cautiously  continued.  A  French 
frigate  attempting  to  escape  from  the  harbor  was  captured. 
A  heavy  cannonade  being  kept  up  against  the  town  and  the 
vessels  in  the  harbor,  a  bomb  set  on  fire  and  blew  up  one 
of  the  largest  ships,  and  the  flames  were  communicated  to 
two  others,  which  shared  the  same  fate  (July  21,  1758). 
The  batteries  erected  at  the  lighthouse  meantime  had 
silenced  the  battery  of  the  enemy,  situated  on  one  of  the 
islands  at  the  entrance  of  the  harbor. 

On  July  25th  the  admiral  sent  in  600  men  in  the  night 
to  destroy  the  two  remaining  ships-of-the-line,  who  burnt 
the  Prudent,  a  seventy-four,  and  towed  off  the  Bienfaisant, 
a  sixty-four,  to  the  northeast  harbor.  This  gallant  exploit 
putting  the  English  in  complete  possession  of  the  harbor, 
and  several  breaches  having  been  made  practicable  in  the 
works,  the  brave  Drucour,  finding  the  place  no  longer 
tenable,  proposed  terms  of  capitulation.  The  English  com- 
manders, who  were  on  the  point  of  sending  six  ships  into 
the  harbor  to  aid  in  an  assault,  required  that  the  garrison 
should  surrender  as  prisoners  of  war.  Drucour  at  first  re- 
jected these  humiliating  terms  and  determined  to  hold  out 
to  the  last,  but  overcome  by  the  importunities  of  the  suf- 
fering inhabitants  of  the  town  he  at  length  acceded  to  the 
conditions  prescribed;  and  Louisburg,  with  all  its  artillery, 
provisions,  and  military  stores,  together  with  Island  Royal, 
St.  Johns,  and  their  dependencies,  were  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  English,  who  at  once  took  possession  of  the  island 
of  Cape  Breton.     They  found  221  pieces  of  cannon  and 


396  WASHINGTON. 

eighteen  mortars,  with  a  very  large  quantity  of  stores  and 
ammunition  in  the  fortress.  The  inhabitants  of  Cape  Bre- 
ton were  sent  to  France  in  EngHsh  ships,  but  the  garrison, 
sea  officers,  sailors,  and  marines,  amounting  collectively  to 
3,291  men,  were  carried  prisoners  to  England.  The  news 
of  the  brilliant  success  of  the  expedition  was  received  with 
great  rejoicing  throughout  the  Colonies,  and  the  event  was 
triumphantly  celebrated  in  London. 

Soon  after  the  surrender  of  Louisburg,  General  Wolfe 
returned  to  England,  while  General  Amherst*  sailed  with 
part  of  his  army  to  Boston  and  from  thence  marched  to 
Fort  William  Henry  to  take  part  in  the  second  expedition 
of  the  campaign,  the  leading  incidents  of  which  we  now 
proceed  to  notice. 

The  force  destined  for  the  expedition  against  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point  consisted  of  16,000  men,  attended  by  a 
powerful  train  of  artillery,  and  led  by  the  commander-in- 
chief,  General  Abercrombie.  Subordinate  to  him,  in  com- 
mand of  5,000  of  these  men,  was  George  Howe,  lord  vis- 
count, the  most  popular  of  all  the  British  officers  who  ever 

*  Like  Wolfe,  Amherst  was  selected  by  Chatham  to  aid  in  the 
execution  of  that  eminent  statesman's  great  military  designs;  and 
his  success  proved  that  the  minister  had  formed  a  just  estimate  of 
his  courage  and  ability.  The  services  which  he  rendered  to  Great 
Britain  in  America  fully  entitled  him  to  the  honors  with  which  he 
was  afterward  rewarded.  He  was  described  as  having  been  "a 
thorough  good  soldier:"  cautious  but  enterprising;  temperate  and 
collected  in  the  greatest  difficulties;  strict  in  the  enforcement  of 
discipline,  yet  averse  to  mere  military  parade,  and  particularly 
kind  to  the  men  under  his  command.  He  erected  a  column,  near 
his  residence  at  Riverhead,  commemorating  the  escape  of  himself 
and  his  two  brothers,  Lieutenant-General  and  Admiral  Amherst, 
from  the  perils  of  war;  and  recording  those  successes  of  the  British 
forces  in  Canada,  to  which  he  had  materially  contributed  by  his 
bravery  and  skill. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  397 

served  in  the  Colonies.  Abercrombie  was  as  remarkable 
for  timidity  and  imbecility  as  Howe  was  for  courage  and 
enterprise. 

On  the  5th  of  July  (1758)  Abercrombie  embarked  his 
troops  on  Lake  George  on  board  of  125  whale-boats  and 
900  batteaux,  with  rafts  for  the  artillery,  and  passing  down 
the  lake  landed  on  the  west  side  near  its  outlet.  The  troops 
were  formed  into  four  columns,  the  British  in  the  center 
and  the  provincials  on  the  flanks.  In  this  order  they 
marched  toward  the  advanced  guard  of  the  French  which, 
consisting  of  one  battalion  only,  posted  in  a  log  breast- 
work, set  fire  to  their  camp  and  made  a  precipitate  retreat. 

While  Abercrombie  was  urging  forward  his  march 
through  the  woods  toward  Ticonderoga,  the  columns  were 
thrown  into  confusion  and  in  some  degree  entangled  with 
each  other.  At  this  juncture  Lord  Howe,  at  the  head  of 
the  right  center  column,  fell  in  with  a  part  of  the  advanced 
guard  of  the  enemy,  who  had  lost  their  way  in  the  woods 
in  retreating  from  Lake  George,  and  immediately  attacked 
and  dispersed  it,  killing  300  of  the  enemy  and  taking  148 
prisoners.  This  success  however  was  dearly  purchased  by 
the  death  of  Lord  Howe*  himself,  who  fell  at  the  first  fire. 

Abercrombie  ordered  the  troops  to  fall  back  to  the  land^ 
ing  place  on  Lake  George  and  bivouac  for  the  night.    The 

*  George  Howe,  Lord  Viscount,  was  the  eldest  son  of  Sir  E. 
Scrope,  second  lord  viscount  in  Ireland.  He  commanded  five 
thousand  British  troops,  which  arrived  at  Halifax  in  July,  1757- 
The  next  year,  when  Abercrombie  marched  against  Ticonderoga, 
in  an  attack  on  the  advanced  guard  of  the  French  posted  in  the 
woods,  Lord  Howe  fell  at  the  first  fire,  in  July,  1758,  aged  ZZ-  "  In 
him,"  says  Manto,  "  the  soul  of  the  army  seemed  to  expire."  By 
his  military  talents  and  many  virtues,  he  had  acquired  esteem  and 
affection.  Massachusetts  erected  a  monument  to  his  memory  in 
Westminster  Abbey,  at  an  expense  of  £250. 


398  WASHINGTON. 

master-spirit  of  the  enterprise  was  no  more,  and  the  in- 
capable Abercrombie  was  left  to  encounter  the  able  and 
indefatigable  Montcalm.  This  officer,  who  was  in  com- 
mand at  Ticonderoga,  had  caused  trees  to  be  felled  in  front 
of  the  breastwork  of  the  fortress  at  some  distance,  having 
some  of  their  branches  sharpened  to  a  point,  so  as  to  retard 
assailants  and  entangle  them  in  the  branches. 

The  engineer  sent  forward  by  Abercrombie  the  next 
morning  to  reconnoiter  the  works  seems  not  to  have  no- 
ticed the  character  of  this  abattis  as,  on  his  return,  he  re- 
ported  that  the  works  were  unfinished  and  might  easily  be 
taken.  Abercrombie,  posted  at  some  sawmills  two  miles 
from  the  fort,  without  waiting  for  his  artillery,  ordered  an 
immediate  assault  (July  8,  1758).  The  contest  lasted  four 
hours.  The  soldiers  fought  bravely,  but  were  cut  down  by 
the  merciless  fire  of  the  French,  securely  posted  behind 
their  works,  and  the  result  was  a  defeat,  with  the  loss  of 
2,000  men  and  2,500  stand  of  arms.  Abercrombie  ordered 
a  retreat  to  his  former  camp  on  the  south  side  of  Lake 
George,  whence  he  immediately  recrossed  the  lake,  and  en- 
tirely abandoned  the  project  of  capturing  Ticonderoga.* 

The  only  success  accomplished  by  this  portion  of  the 
army  during  the  campaign  is  due  to  the  enterprise  of  one 
of  the  heroes  of  Louisburg. 

Col.  John  Bradstreet,  who  had  served  as  captain  in 
Lieutenant-General  Pepperrell's  regiment  at  Louisburg  in 
I745>  and  his  intimate  friend  and  protege,  was  in  this  dis- 
astrous engagement  against  Ticonderoga  with  Aber- 
crombie, and  immediately  afterward  earnestly  solicited  per- 
mission to  march  against  Fort  Frontenac,  near  the  head 

*This  defeat  induced  Pitt  to  order  Abercrombie  home,  and  to 
give  the  command  to  Amherst,  who  had  returned  from  Louisburg. 
Amherst  marched  back,  and  commanded  the  army  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain  to  the  end  of  the  war. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  399 

of  Lake  Ontario,  with  a  force  of  3,000  men,  chiefly  pro- 
vincial mihtia,*  carrying  eight  pieces  of  cannon  and  two 
mortars.  The  troops  embarked  at  Oswego  on  the  evening 
of  the  25th  of  August  (1758),  and  landed  within  a  mile  of 
Fort  Frontenac  which,  after  a  spirited  assault  of  two  days, 
surrendered  at  discretion.  The  Indians  having  previously 
deserted  left  but  no  prisoners  of  war.  But  the  captors 
found  in  the  fort  sixty  pieces  of  cannon,  sixteen  small 
mortars,  a  large  number  of  small  arms,  a  vast  quantity 
of  provisions,  military  stores,  and  merchandise,  and  nine 
armed  vessels.  Having  destroyed  the  fort,  vessels,  and 
stores.  Colonel  Bradstreet  returned  to  the  main  army. 
For  this  noble  achievement,!  he  was   subsequently  pro- 

*  The  proportions,  as  given  by  Dr.  Parsons  in  his  "  Life  of  Sir 
William  Pepperrell,"  are  as  follows: 

Regulars i3S 

New  York  Provincial  Militia  1,112 

New  Jersey  Provincial  Militia   412 

Boston  Provincial  Militia  675 

Rhode  Island  Provincial  Militia  318 

Batteau  men 300 


2,952 


tjohn  Bradstreet  was  born  in  England.  He  was  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  St.  Johns,  Newfoundland,  in  1746.  He  was  afterward 
renowned  for  his  military  services.  In  the  year  1756,  it  being 
deemed  of  the  highest  importance  to  keep  open  the  communica- 
tion with  Fort  Oswego,  on  Lake  Ontario,  General  Shirley  enlisted 
forty  companies  of  boatmen,  and  placed  them  under  the  command 
of  Bradstreet,  to  effect  this  object.  In  the  spring  of  this  year,  a 
well-stockaded  post  of  twenty-five  men  had  been  cut  off.  The 
enemy  having  possession  of  the  passage  through  the  Onondaga 
river,  rendered  it  necessary  to  transport  the  requisite  boats  across 
the  country.  On  his  return  from  Oswego  in  July,  1756,  Colonel 
Bradstreet,  who  was  apprehensive  of  being  surprised,  ordered  the 
several  divisions  to  keep  as  close  together  as  possible.  He  was  at 
the  head  of  about  three  hundred  boatmen  in  the  first  division,  when, 


400  WASHINGTON. 

moted  to  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  in  the  royal  army, 
to  the  great  joy  and  satisfaction  of  his  old  commander 
and  patron,  Sir  William  Pepperrell. 

The  fall  of  Frontenac  cut  off  the  supplies  intended  for 
Fort  Duquesne  and  hastened  its  reduction. 

We  now  proceed  to  notice  the  operations  of  the  third 
expedition  of  the  campaign  of  1758,  that,  namely,  which  was 
intended  for  the  reduction  of  Fort  Duquesne,  in  which 
Washington  took  a  very  active  part.  We  left  him  at  Fort 
Loudoun,  writing  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses 
on  the  importance  of  carrying  the  war  into  the  enemy's 
country.  His  wishes  in  this  respect  were  now  to  be  grati- 
fied, and  that  on  an  extensive  scale,  and  yet  perhaps  there 
is  not  a  period  in  the  whole  career  of  Washington  during 
which  his  patience  and  patriotism  were  more  severely  tried 
than  during  the  progress  of  this  expedition.  The  army 
destined  to  operate  against  Fort  Duquesne  was  placed  un- 
der the  command  of  General  Forbes,  and  the  force  at  his 
disposal  was  more  than  sufficient  for  the  purpose,  but  the 
measures  adopted  by  him  were  as  badly  conceived  as  if  they 
had  been  expressly  intended  to  defeat  the  expedition.* 

at  the  distance  of  nine  miles  from  the  fort,  the  enemy  issued  from 
an  ambuscade  and  attacked  him.  He  instantly  landed  upon  a  small 
island,  and,  with  only  six  men,  maintained  his  position  until  he 
was  reinforced.  A  general  engagement  ensued,  in  which  Brad- 
street  gallantly  attacked  a  more  numerous  enemy,  and  entirely 
routed  them,  killing  and  wounding  about  two  hundred  men.  His 
own  loss  was  about  thirty.  In  the  year  1758,  he  planned  an  expedi- 
tion against  Fort  Frontenac,  and  being  intrusted  with  the  command 
of  3,000  men,  he  invested  the  fort  and  compelled  the  garrison  to 
surrender  on  the  27th  of  August.  In  1764,  he  compelled  the  Dela- 
wares,  Shawnees,  and  other  Indians,  to  conclude  treaties  of  peace. 
He  was  appointed  general  in  1772,  and  died  in  1774. 

*  "  The  troops  actually  employed  under  General  Forbes  were  1,200 
Highlanders,  350  Royal  Americans,  about  2,700  provincials  from 
Pennsylvania,  1,600  from  Virginia,  two  or  three  hundred  from  Mary- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  401 

The  Virginia  Assembly  promptly  complied  with  the 
requisition  of  the  minister,  furnishing  two  regiments, 
amounting  to  i,8oo  men  as  their  contingent.  One  of  these 
was  commanded  by  Colonel  Washington,  who  still  retained 
his  rank  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  Virginia  forces.  The 
other  was  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Byrd.  Washing- 
ton warmly  recommended  an  early  campaign  for  this  among 
other  reasons:  Seven  hundred  Indians  had  in  April  (1758) 
assembled  at  Winchester,  whose  patience  would  be  ex- 
hausted unless  they  were  promptly  employed,  and  in  the 
event  of  their  desertion  he  observes :  "  No  words  can  tell 
how  much  they  will  be  missed."  He  was  at  length  ordered 
to  collect  the  Virginia  troops  at  Winchester,  and  hold  them 
in  readiness  for  active  service.  At  this  late  moment,  when 
the  duties  of  the  field  demanded  all  his  attention,  he  was 
under  the  necessity  of  making  a  journey  to  Williamsburg, 
the  seat  of  government,  in  order  to  obtain  a  supply  of  arms, 
clothing,  and  money  for  his  regiment,  and  to  secure  for 
his  own  veteran  soldiers  the  same  pay  which  the  Assembly, 
in  their  recent  session,  had  voted  for  the  new  regiment 
raised  for  the  present  campaign.  While  he  was  training 
the  newly-enlisted  soldiers  and  preparing  supplies  and  the 
means  of  transportation  the  soldiers  were  becoming  im- 
patient, and  the  Indians,  as  he  had  anticipated,  grew  dis- 
contented, and  nearly  all  of  them  returned  to  their  homes. 

While  Washington  was  thus  occupied  at  Winchester, 
General  Forbes  was  detained  by  illness  at  Philadelphia,  and 

land,  who  had  been  stationed  in  garrison  at  Fort  Frederic,  under 
Colonel  Dagworthy,  and  also  two  companies  from  North  Carolina, 
making  in  all,  including  the  wagoners,  between  six  and  seven 
thousand  men.  This  army  was  more  than  five  months  penetrating 
to  the  Ohio,  where  it  was  found,  at  last,  that  they  had  to  oppose 
only  five  hundred  of  the  enemy."—  Sparks's  "  Writings  of  Washing- 
ton," vol.  II,  p.  289,  note. 
26 


40^  WASHINGTON. 

Colonel  Bouquet  was  in  command  at  Raystown,  thirty 
miles  from  Fort  Cumberland.  The  intermediate  place  be- 
tween this  point  and  Washington's  quarters  at  Winchester 
was  designated  for  conferences  between  him,  Colonel 
Bouquet,  and  the  quartermaster-general.  Sir  John  St.  Clair, 
in  order  to  determine  a  uniform-  plan  of  action  and  make 
the  necessary  arrangements. 

[In  view  of  an  offensive  campaign  against  the  French 
and  Indians  on  the  Ohio, —  a  repetition  of  the  design 
which  Braddock's  terrible  defeat  interrupted,  Washington 
wrote  to  one  of  Braddock's  officers.  Major  Halket,  April 
12,  1758: 

"Are  we  to  have  you  once  more  among  us?  And  shall 
we  revisit  together  a  hapless  spot,  that  proved  so  fatal  to 
many  of  our  (former)  brave  companions?  Yes;  and  I 
rejoice  at  it,  hoping  it  will  now  be  in  our  power  to  tes- 
tify a  just  abhorrence  of  the  cruel  butchery  exercised  on 
our  friends  in  the  unfortunate  day  of  Braddock's  defeat; 
and,  moreover,  to  show  our  enemies,  that  we  can  practise 
all  that  lenity  of  which  they  only  boast,  without  affording 
any  adequate  proofs  at  all." 

In  a  letter  of  April  17,  1758,  to  the  President  of  the 
Council,  Washington  said: 

"  The  last  Assembly,  in  their  Supply  Bill,  provided  for 
a  chaplain  to  our  regiment,  for  whom  I  had  often  very 
unsuccessfully  applied  to  Governor  Dinwiddie.  I  now 
flatter  myself,  that  your  Honor  will  be  pleased  to  appoint 
a  sober,  serious  man  for  this  duty.  Common  decency. 
Sir,  in  a  camp  calls  for  the  services  of  a  divine,  and  which 
ought  not  to  be  dispensed  with,  although  the  world  should 
be  so  uncharitable  as  to  think  us  void  of  religion,  and 
incapable  of  good  instructions." 

At  Williamsburg,  May  28,  1758,  Washington  wrote  a 
long  statement  of  the  needs  of  his  troops,  and  of  the  ser- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  403 

vice  to  be  required  of  them.  He  began:  "I  came  here 
at  this  critical  juncture,  by  the  express  order  of  Sir  John 
St.  Clair,  to  represent  in  the  fullest  manner  the  posture  of 
our  affairs  at  Winchester,  and  to  obviate  any  doubts  that 
might  arise  from  the  best  written  narrative.  I  shall  make 
use  of  the  following  method,  as  the  most  effectual  I 
can  at  present  suggest,  to  lay  sundry  matters  before  you, 
for  your  information,  approbation,  and  direction."  The 
letter  goes  on  with  a  statement  under  twelve  heads,  for 
the  first  of  which  a  letter  from  Sir  John  St.  Clair  is  sub- 
mitted. 

It  was  an  incident  of  this  journey  to  Williamsburg,  and 
the  stay  there  which  the  business  required,  which  led 
to  Washington's  marriage  engagement.  Irving  tells  the 
story  as  follows,  after  an  account  of  the  gathering  at  Win- 
chester of  the  troops  which  were  to  be  under  Washington's 
command: 

"  The  force  thus  assembling  was  in  want  of  arms,  tents, 
field-equipage,  and  almost  every  requisite.  Washington 
had  made  repeated  representations,  by  letter,  of  the  des- 
titute state  of  the  Virginia  troops,  but  without  avail;  he 
was  now  ordered  by  Sir  John  St.  Clair,  the  quartermas- 
ter-general of  the  forces,  under  General  Forbes,  to  repair 
to  Williamsburg,  and  lay  the  state  of  the  case  before  the 
council.  He  set  off  promptly  on  horseback  attended  by 
Bishop,  the  well-trained  military  servant,  who  had  served 
the  late  General  Braddock.  It  proved  an  eventful  jour- 
ney, though  not  in  a  military  point  of  view.  In  crossing 
a  ferry  of  the  Pamunkey,  a  branch  of  York  River,  he  fell 
in  company  with  a  Mr.  Chamberlayne,  who  lived  in  the 
neighborhood,  and  who,  in  the  spirit  of  Virginian  hospi- 
tality, claimed  him  as  a  guest.  It  was  with  difficulty 
Washington  could  be  prevailed  on  to  halt  for  dinner,  so 


404  WASHINGTON. 

impatient  was  he  to  arrive  at  Williamsburg,  and  accom- 
plish his  mission. 

"  Among  the  guests  at  Mr.  Chamberlayne's  was  a  young 
and  blooming  widow,  Mrs.  Martha  Custis,  daughter  of 
Mr.  John  Dandridge,  both  patrician  names  in  the  prov- 
ince. Her  husband,  John  Parke  Custis,  had  been  dead 
about  three  years,  leaving  her  with  two  young  children, 
and  a  large  fortune.  She  is  represented  as  being  rather 
below  the  middle  size,  but  extremely  well  shaped,  with 
an  agreeable  countenance,  dark  hazel  eyes  and  hair,  and 
those  frank,  engaging  manners,  so  captivating  in  Southern 
women.  We  are  not  informed  whether  Washington  had 
met  with  her  before;  probably  not  during  her  widow- 
hood, as  during  that  time  he  had  been  almost  continually 
on  the  frontier. 

"  It  was  not  until  the  next  morning  that  he  was  again 
in  the  saddle,  spurring  for  Williamsburg.  Happily  the 
White  House,  the  residence  of  Mrs.  Custis,  was  in  New 
Kent  County,  at  no  great  distance  from  that  city,  so  that 
he  had  opportunities  of  visiting  her  in  the  intervals  of 
business. 

"  Before  returning  to  Winchester,  Washington  was 
obliged  to  hold  conferences  with  Sir  John  St.  Clair  and 
Colonel  Bouquet,  at  an  intermediate  rendezvous,  to  give 
them  information  respecting  the  frontiers,  and  arrange 
about  the  marching  of  his  troops.*' 

It  was  on  the  13th  of  June,  after  about  three  weeks' 
stay  at  Williamsburg,  that  Washington  returned  to  his 
command;  and  on  the  24th  he  marched  from  Winchester 
for  Fort  Cumberland.  A  month  later,  July  20th,  he  sent 
the  following  letter  from  Fort  Cumberland: 

"  To  Martha  Custis. 

"We  have  begun  our  march  for  the  Ohio.  A  courier 
is  starting  for  Williamsburg,  and  I  embrace  the  opportun- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  405 

ity  to  send  a  few  words  to  one  whose  life  is  now  insepara- 
ble from  mine.  Since  that  happy  hour  when  we,  made  our 
pledges  to  each  other,  my  thoughts  have  been  continually 
going  to  you  as  to  another  self.  That  an  All  Powerful 
Providence  may  keep  us  both  in  safety  is  the  prayer  of 
your  ever  faithful  &  Ever  affectionate  Friend, 

G°.  Washington." 

June  19,  1758,  Washington  wrote  to  General  Forbes 
a  letter  of  suggestions  in  regard  to  the  employment  of 
Indian  allies.  The  march,  he  said,  ''  of  more  than  100 
miles  from  our  advanced  post  [at  Fort  Cumberland],  be- 
fore we  shall  arrive  at  Fort  Duquesne;  a  great  part  of 
which  will  be  over  mountains  and  rocks,  and  through  de- 
files; will  enable  the  enemy,  with  their  superior  knowledge 
of  the  country,  to  render  extremely  arduous,  unsafe,  and, 
at  best,  tedious,  our  intended  expedition,  unless  we  also 
can  be  assisted  by  a  body  of  Indians, —  the  best,  if  not 
the  only  troops  fit  to  cope  with  Indians  in  such  grounds." 
In  view,  therefore,  of  the  extreme  importance  of  Indian 
aid,  Washington  proposed  that  "  A  person  of  abiHties  and 
address  be  sent  immediately  to  the  Cherokee  nation  to 
get  a  number  of  the  Indians  to  our  assistance,"  while  the 
plan  of  army  advances  was  being  worked  out. 

The  same  day  Washington  sent  a  letter  to  Fauquier, 
the  new  Governor,  calling  his  attention  to  the  scandalous 
fashion  in  which  an  order  calling  out  100  militia  had  been 
complied  with.  "  73  only  came;  and  not  one  of  them  pro- 
vided, as  the  law  directs,  with  arms  and  ammunition." 
Upon  representation  of  the  matter  in  the  proper  quarter, 
"near  100  arms  were  sent,  out  of  which  number  scarce 
five  were  serviceable,  and  not  more  than  30  could  be 
made  to  fire."  Washington  adds:  "I  immediately  set 
smiths  to  repairing  the  arms,  and  I  have,  with  the  assist- 
ance of  35  old  muskets,  which  I  caused  to  be  delivered 


406  WASHINGTON. 

out  of  the  store  here,  got  this  company  at  last  completed 
[in  outfit  —  not  in  numbers,  as  there  were  but  68,  when 
there  ought  to  have  been  lOO.].  Till  this  time  they  have 
been  a  dead  expense  to  the  pubHc,  and  of  no  service  to 
the  inhabitants.  This,  Sir,  is  a  true  statement  of  facts, 
and  really  merits  reprehension:  for,  if  such  behavior  is 
suffered  to  escape  unnoticed,  the  most  destructive  conse- 
quences may  accrue."] 

At  length  Washington  received  the  long-desired  order  to 
advance  with  the  Virginia  regiments  from  Winchester  to 
Fort  Cumberland,  where  he  arrived  early  in  July  (1758).* 

[Marching  from  Winchester,  June  24th,  "  with  five  com- 
panies of  the  First  Virginia  regiment,  and  a  company  of 
artificers  of  the  Second,"  Washington,  "  much  delayed  by 

*The  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  Robert  Munford  to 
Colonel  Bland,  dated  Fort  Cumberland,  July  6,  1758,  gives  us  a 
glimpse  of  camp  life,  and  of  the  estimation  in  which  Washington 
was  held,  at  that  time,  by  the  officers  serving  under  his  command: 

"After  being  delayed  at  Winchester  five  or  six  weeks  longer 
than  expected  (in  which  time,  I  was  ordered  express  to  Williams- 
burg, and  allowed  but  a  day  after  my  return  to  prepare),  we  pushed 
oflf  into  the  wide  ocean.  I  was  permitted  to  walk  every  step  of 
the  way  to  this  humble  fort,  to  eat  little,  and  lay  hard,  over  moun- 
tain, through  mud  and  water,  yet  as  merry  and  hearty  as  ever. 
Our  flankers  and  sentries  pretend  they  saw  the  enemy  daily,  but 
they  never  approached  us.  A  detachment  is  this  moment  ordered 
of?  to  clear  a  road  thirty  miles,  and  our  companies  to  cover  the 
working  party.  We  are  in  fine  scalping-ground,  I  assure  you;  the 
guns  pop  about  us,  and  you  may  see  the  fellows  prick  up  their 
ears,  like  deer,  every  moment.  Our  colonel  (Washington)  is  an 
-example  of  fortitude  in  either  danger  or  hardships,  and  by  his 
«asy,  polite  behavior,  has  gained  not  only  the  regard  but  affection 
of  both  officers  and  soldiers.  He  has  kindly  invited  me  to  his 
table  for  the  campaign,  offered  me  any  sum  of  money  I  may  have 
occasion  for,  without  charging  either  principal  or  interest,  and 
signified  his  approbation  of  my  conduct  hitherto  in  such  a  manner 
as  is  to  me  of  advantage."—  Bland  Papers,  p.  9. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  407 

bad  teams  and  bad  roads/'  arrived  at  camp  near  Fort 
Cumberland,  July  2d,  in  the  afternoon. 

July  19th,  Washington  said  in  a  letter  to  Colonel  Bou- 
quet, the  commander  of  the  expedition: 

"  I  am  excessively  obliged  by  the  very  handsome  and 
polite  manner,  by  which  you  are  pleased  to  give  me  leave 
to  attend  the  election  at  Winchester.  Though  my  being 
there  on  that  occasion  would,  at  any  other  time,  be  very 
agreeable  to  me,  yet  at  this  juncture  I  can  hardly  per- 
suade myself  to  think  of  being  absent  from  my  more  im- 
mediate duty,  even  for  a  few  days." 

This  refers  to  Washington's  standing  for  election  as 
one  of  the  two  members  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  for 
Frederick  county.  The  election  took  place  July  24th,  and 
the  result  of  the  poll  was,  Washington,  307;  Colonel  Mar- 
tin, a  nephew  of  Lord  Fairfax,  240;  and  two  others,  199 
and  45,  respectively.  These  same  two  now  defeated  had 
been  elected  on  a  previous  occasion  with  271  and  270 
votes,  while  Washington,  who  was  also  a  candidate,  got 
only  40  votes.  At  least  such  an  election  report  was  found 
among  his  papers,  but  with  no  indication  of  date.  It  was 
in  a  letter  of  May  25,  1755,  that  Washington  asked  his 
brother,  John  A.  Washington,  to  ascertain  how  matters 
stood,  favorable  or  unfavorable  to  his  standing  as  a 
candidate. 

To  one  of  his  supporters  in  the  election,  Washington 
wrote,  July  29,  1758: 

"  Permit  me  to  return  you  my  sincerest  thanks  for  your 
great  assistance  at  the  late  election,  and  to  assure  you 
that  I  shall  ever  retain  a  lively  sense  of  the  favor. 

"  Our  expedition  seems  overcast  with  too  many  ills  to 
give  you  any  satisfaction  in  a  transient  relation  of  them. 
God  knows  what's  intended;  for  nothing  seems  ripe  for 


408  WASHINGTON. 

execution;  backwardness,  and  I  would  if  I  dare  say  more, 
appears  in  all  things  —  all  but  the  approach  of  winter." 

To  Colonel  James  Wood,  who  was  known  in  the  "  far 
west  "  of  Virginia  as  the  "  founder  "  of  Winchester,  and 
who  had  personally  represented  Washington  in  the  elec- 
tion proceedings,  Washington  wrote: 

"  If  thanks  from  a  heart  replete  with  joy  and  grati- 
tude can  in  any  measure  compensate  for  the  fatigue, 
anxiety,  and  pain,  you  had  at  my  election,  be  assured 
you  have  them. 

"  How  I  shall  thank  Mrs.  Wood  for  her  favorable  wishes, 
and  how  acknowledge  my  sense  of  obligations  to  the  peo- 
ple in  general  for  their  choice  of  me,  I  am  at  a  loss  to 
resolve  on.  But  why?  Can  I  do  it  more  effectually  than 
by  making  their  interest  (as  it  really  is)  my  own,  and  doing 
everything  that  lies  in  my  little  power  for  the  honor  and 
welfare  of  the  country?  I  think  not;  and  my  best  endeav- 
ors they  may  always  command.  I  promise  this  now,  when 
promises  may  be  regarded;  before  they  might  pass  as 
words  of  course. 

"  I  am  extremely  thankful  to  you  and  my  other  friends 
for  entertaining  the  freeholders  in  my  name.  I  hope  no 
exception  was  taken  to  any  that  voted  against  me,  but 
that  all  were  alike  treated  and  all  had  enough.  My  only 
fear  is  that  you  spent  with  too  sparing  a  hand." 

One  of  Washington's  friends  had  said  in  a  letter  to  him 
immediately  after  the  election: 

''  The  punctual  discharge  of  every  trust,  your  humane 
and  equitable  treatment  of  each  individual,  and  your  ardent 
zeal  for  the  common  cause,  have  gained  your  point  with 
credit;  as  your  friends  could,  with  the  greatest  warmth 
and  truth,  urge  the  worth  of  those  noble  endowments  and 
principles,  as  well  as  your  superior  interest  both  here  and 
in  the  House."     "  Considering  the  command,"  says  Sparks, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  409 

"  which  he  had  been  obHged  to  exercise  in  Frederic  County 
for  near  five  years,  and  the  restraints  which  the  exigency  of 
circumstances  required  him  occasionally  to  put  upon  the  in- 
habitants, this  result  was  deemed  a  triumphant  proof  of 
his  abilities,  address,  and  power  to  win  the  affections  and 
confidence  of  the  people." 

"  From  this  time  till  the  beginning  of  the  revolution,  a 
period  of  fifteen  years,  Washington  was  constantly  a  mem- 
ber of  the  House  of  Burgesses,  being  returned  by  a  large 
majority  of  votes  at  every  election.  For  seven  years  he 
represented,  jointly  with  another  delegate,  the  County  of 
Frederic,  in  which  Winchester  was,  and  afterwards  the 
County  of  Fairfax,  in  which  he  resided.  There  were 
commonly  two  sessions  in  a  year,  and  sometimes  three. 
It  appears,  from  a  record  left  in  his  handwriting,  that  he 
gave  his  attendance  punctually,  and  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  almost  every  session.  It  was  a  maxim  with 
him  through  life,  to  execute  punctually  and  thoroughly 
every  charge  which  he  undertook. 

"  His  influence  in  public  bodies  was  produced  more  by 
the  soundness  of  his  judgment,  his  quick  perceptions,  and 
his  directness  and  undeviating  sincerity,  than  by  eloquence 
or  art  in  recommending  his  opinions.  He  seldom  spoke, 
never  harangued,  and  it  is  not  known  that  he  ever  made 
a  set  speech,  or  entered  into  a  stormy  debate.  But  his 
attention  was  at  all  times  awake.  He  studied  profoundly 
the  prominent  topics  of  discussion,  and,  whenever  occasion 
required,  was  prepared  to  deliver  his  sentiments  clearly, 
and  to  act  with  decision  and  firmness.  His  practice  may 
be  inferred  from  the  counsel  he  gave  to  a  nephew,  who 
had  just  taken  his  seat  for  the  first  time  in  the  Assembly. 

"  '  The  only  advice  I  will  offer,'  said  he,  '  if  you  have 
a  mind  to  command  the  attention  of  the  House,  is  to 
speak  seldom  but  on  important  subjects,  except  such  as 


410  WASHINGTON, 

particularly  relate  to  your  constituents;  and,  in  the  former 
case,  make  yourself  perfectly  master  of  the  subject.  Never 
exceed  a  decent  warmth,  and  submit  your  sentiments  with 
diffidence.  A  dictatorial  style,  though  it  may  carry  con- 
viction, is  always  accompanied  with  disgust' " 

Sparks  gives  an  account  of  Washington's  action  in  a 
meeting  of  the  parish  of  Truro,  which  shows  exactly  what 
kind  of  speaker  he  was.     Sparks  says: 

''  In  the  affairs  of  Truro  Parish,  to  which  Mount  Ver- 
non belonged,  he  took  a  lively  concern  and  exercised  a 
salutary  control.  He  was  a  vestryman  of  that  parish. 
On  one  occasion  he  gained  a  triumph  of  some  moment, 
which  Mr.  Massey,  the  clergyman,  who  lived  to  an  ad- 
vanced age,  used  to  mention  as  an  instance  of  his  address. 
The  old  church  was  falling  to  ruin,  and  it  was  resolved 
that  another  should  be  built.  Several  meetings  were  held, 
and  a  warm  dispute  arose  respecting  its  location,  the  old 
one  being  remote  from  the  center,  and  inconveniently 
situated  for  many  of  the  parishoners.  A  meeting  for  set- 
tling the  question  was  finally  held.  George  Mason,  who 
led  the  party  that  adhered  to  the  ancient  site,  made  an 
eloquent  harangue,  in  which  he  appealed  with  great  effect 
to  the  sensibilities  of  the  people,  conjuring  them  not  to 
desert  the  spot  consecrated  by  the  bones  of  their  ances- 
tors and  the  most  hallowed  associations.  Mr.  Massey 
said  every  one  present  seemed  moved  by  this  discourse, 
and  for  the  moment,  he  thought  there  would  not  be  a 
dissenting  voice.  Washington  then  rose  and  drew  from 
his  pocket  a  roll  of  paper,  containing  an  exact  survey  of 
Truro  Parish,  on  which  was  marked  the  site  of  the  old 
church,  the  proposed  site  of  the  new  one,  and  the  place 
where  each  parishoner  resided.  He  spread  this  map  be- 
fore the  audience,  explained  it  in  a  few  words,  and  then 
added,  that  it  was  for  them  to  determine,  whether  they 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  411 

would  be  carried  away  by  an  impulse  of  feeling,  or  act 
upon  the  obvious  principles  of  reason  and  justice.  The 
argument,  thus  confirmed  by  ocular  demonstration,  was 
conclusive,  and  the  church  was  erected  on  the  new  site." 

George  Mason,  of  Gunston  Hall,  was  a  neighbor  and  in- 
timate friend  of  Washington;  and  intellectually  at  the  head 
of  the  citizenship  of  Virginia,  until  Washington  rose  to  a 
height  reached  by  no  one  who,  at  any  time  or  anywhere, 
came  into  comparison  with  him.  The  common  impression 
that  he  was  no  speaker,  or  at  least  had  no  habit  of  speak- 
ing, is  entirely  erroneous.  Both  as  a  writer  and  as  a 
speaker  he  was  head  and  shoulders  above  the  most  notable 
of  his  time,  with  the  difiference  that  in  speaking  he  went 
right  to  the  point,  put  the  matter  unanswerably,  and  had 
carried  conviction  before  an  orator  would  have  got  his 
eloquence  under  way.] 

Through  the  month  the  troops  were  employed  in  open- 
ing a  new  road  from  Fort  Cumberland  to  Raystown,  and 
repairing  the  old  one  leading  toward  the  Great  Meadows. 
As  they  were  greatly  annoyed  in  this  service  by  flying  par- 
ties of  the  enemy  it  was  proposed  to  send  a  considerable 
detachment  over  the  mountains  to  restrain  the  French  and 
Indians  from  this  annoyance;  but  Colonel  Washington 
strongly  objected  to  this  measure  because  the  detachment 
would  be  exposed  to  the  whole  force  of  the  enemy  on  the 
Ohio  and  must  be  defeated.  The  plan  was  in  consequence 
given  up,  and  by  his  advice  frequent  scouts  were  substituted. 

Washington's  excellent  judgment  in  this  matter  was 
fully  illustrated  by  the  subsequent  disaster  which  befel  the 
detachment  of  Colonel  Grant. 

While  Colonel  Washington  was  posted  at  Fort  Cumber- 
land he  adopted  a  style  of  dress  for  the  soldiers  which  is 
supposed  by  Mr.  Irving  to  have  given  rise  to  the  dress 


41^  WASHINGTON. 

worn  by  American  riflemen  in  the  subsequent  wars.  It 
was  the  Indian  dress.  In  a  letter  to  Colonel  Bouquet  dated 
July  3,  1758,  he  thus  alludes  to  it: 

"  My  men  are  very  bare  of  regimental  clothing,  and  I 
have  no  prospect  of  a  supply.  So  far  from  regretting  this 
want  during  the  present  campaign,  if  I  were  left  to  pursue 
my  own  inclinations,  I  would  not  only  order  the  men  to 
adopt  the  Indian  dress  but  cause  the  officers  to  do  it  also, 
and  be  the  first  to  set  the  example  myself.  Nothing  but 
the  uncertainty  of  obtaining  the  general  approbation  causes 
me  to  hesitate  a  moment  to  leave  my  regimentals  at  this 
place  and  proceed  as  light  as  any  Indian  in  the  woods.  It 
is  an  unbecoming  dress  I  own  for  any  officer,  but  con- 
venience, rather  than  show,  I  think,  should  be  consulted. 
The  reduction  of  bat-horses  alone  would  be  sufficient  to 
recommend  it,  for  nothing  is  more  certain  than  that  less 
baggage  would  be  required  and  the  public  benefited  in  pro- 
portion." 

From  a  letter  addressed  by  him  to  Colonel  Bouquet  dated 
July  9th  we  learn  that  his  plan  was  adopted,  and  found  to 
answer  an  excellent  purpose.  In  this  letter  he  thus  ex- 
presses himself: 

"  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  find  that  you  approve  the 
dress  I  have  put  my  men  into.  It  is  evident  that  soldiers 
in  that  trim  are  better  able  to  carry  their  provisions,  are 
fitter  for  the  active  service  we  must  engage  in,  less  liable 
to  sink  under  the  fatigues  of  ^a  march,  and  we  thus  get  rid 
of  much  baggage  which  would  lengthen  our  line  of  march. 
These  and  not  whim  or  caprice  were  my  reasons  for  order- 
ing this  dress." 

A  practicable  military  road  having  been  opened  for  the 
passage  of  General  Braddock's  army  to  Fort  Duquesne, 
Colonel  Washington    had  taken  it    for    granted  that  this 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  413 

would  be  the  route  taken  by  General  Forbes'  army  in  the 
present  campaign.  We  may  imagine  therefore  his  surprise 
and  mortification  when  late  in  July  (1758)  he  received  a 
letter  from  Colonel  Bouquet  asking  an  interview  with  him 
in  order  to  consult  on  opening  a  new  road  from  Raystown, 
and  requesting  his  opinion  on  that  route. 

"  I  shall,"  says  he,  in  answer  to  this  letter,  "  most  cheer- 
fully work  on  any  road,  pursue  any  route,  or  enter  upon 
any  service,  that  the  general  or  yourself  may  think  me  use- 
fully employed  in,  or  quahfied  for,  and  shall  never  have  a 
will  of  my  own  when  a  duty  is  required  of  me.  But  since 
you  desire  me  to  speak  my  sentiments  freely,  permit  me  to 
observe  that  after  having  conversed  with  all  the  guides, 
and  having  been  informed  by  others  acquainted  with  the 
country,  I  am  convinced  that  a  road,  to  be  compared  with 
General  Braddock's,  or  indeed  that  will  be  fit  for  trans- 
portation even  by  pack-horses,  cannot  be  made.  I  own 
I  have  no  predilection  for  the  route  you  have  in  contem- 
plation for  me." 

In  the  interview  with  Colonel  Bouquet,  which  took  place 
a  few  days  after  his  writing  this  letter,  Colonel  Washing- 
ton found  that  officer  strongly  in  favor  of  opening  the  new 
route.  After  their  separation  he,  with  the  permission  of 
Colonel  Bouquet,  addressed  to  him  a  letter  which  was  to 
be  laid  before  General  Forbes,  setting  forth  his  reasons 
against  making  a  new  road.  He  was  apprehensive  that  the 
loss  of  time  occasioned  by  attempting  it  would  be  so  great 
that  they  would  be  able  to  do  nothing  more  than  fortify 
some  post  on  the  other  side  of  the  Alleghany  and  prepare 
for  another  campaign.  He  was  equally  opposed  to  another 
scheme  which  had  been  proposed  of  dividing  the  army  and 
marching  by  two  different  routes. 

In  the  following    letter  to  Colonel    Bouquet,  Colonel 


414  WASHINGTON. 

Washington  produces  unanswerable  arguments  in  support 
of  his  own  views  on  both  these  questions : 

"  Camp  at  Fort  Cumberland, 
"  August  2,  1758. 

"  Sir. —  The  matters  of  which  we  spoke  relative  to  the 
roads,  have,  since  our  parting,  been  the  subject  of  my  closest 
reflection,  and  so  far  am  I  from  altering  my  opinion  that 
the  more  time  and  attention  I  bestow  the  more  I  am  con- 
firmed in  it,  and  the  reasons  for  taking  Braddock's  road 
appear  in  a  stronger  point  of  view.  To  enumerate  the 
whole  of  these  reasons  would  be  tedious,  and  to  you,  who 
are  so  much  master  of  the  subject,  unnecessary.  I  shall 
therefore  briefly  mention  a  few  only,  which  I  think  so  ob- 
vious in  themselves,  that  they  must  effectually  remove  ob- 
jections. 

"  Several  years  ago  the  Virginians  and  Pennsylvanians 
commenced  a  trade  with  the  Indians  settled  on  the  Ohio, 
and  to  obviate  the  many  inconveniences  of  a  bad  road  they, 
after  reiterated  and  ineffectual  efforts  to  discover  where  a 
good  one  might  be  made,  employed  for  the  purpose  several 
of  the  most  intelligent  Indians  who,  in  the  course  of  many 
years  hunting,  had  acquired  a  perfect  knowledge  of  these 
mountains.  The  Indians  having  taken  the  greatest  pains 
to  gain  the  rewards  offered  for  this  discovery  declared  that 
the  path  leading  from  Wills  Creek  was  infinitely  preferable 
to  any  that  could  be  made  at  any  other  place.  Time  and 
experience  so  clearly  demonstrated  this  truth  that  the 
Pennsylvania  traders  commonly  carried  out  their  goods  by 
Wills  Creek.  Therefore  the  Ohio  Company,  in  1753,  at 
a  considerable  expense,  opened  the  road.  In  1754  the 
troops  whom  I  had  the  honor  to  command  greatly  repaired 
it  as  far  as  Gist's  plantation;  and  in  1755  it  was  widened 
and  completed  by  General  Braddock  to  within  six  miles 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  415 

of  Fort  Duquesne.  A  road  that  has  so  long  been  opened, 
and  so  well  and  so  often  repaired,  must  be  firmer  and  bet- 
ter than  a  new  one,  allowing  the  ground  to  be  equally  good. 

"  But  supposing  it  were  practicable  to  make  a  road  from 
Raystown  quite  as  good  as  General  Braddock's,  I  ask  have 
we  time  to  do  it?  Certainly  not.  To  surmount  the  diffi- 
culties to  be  encountered  in  making  it  over  such  moun- 
tains, covered  with  woods  and  rocks,  would  require  so  much 
time  as  to  blast  our  otherwise  well-grounded  hopes  of 
striking  the  important  stroke  this  season. 

"  The  favorable  accounts  that  some  give  of  the  forage 
on  the  Raystown  road,  as  being  so  much  better  than  that 
on  the  other,  are  certainly  exaggerated.  It  is  well  known 
that  on  both  routes  the  rich  valleys  between  the  mountains 
abound  with  good  forage,  and  that  those  which  are  stony 
and  bushy  are  destitute  of  it.  Colonel  Byrd  and  the  engi- 
neer who  accompanied  him  confirm  this  fact.  Surely  the 
meadows  on  Braddock's  road  would  greatly  overbalance 
the  advantage  of  having  grass  to  the  foot  of  the  ridge  on 
the  Raystown  road,  and  all  agree  that  a  more  barren  road 
is  nowhere  to  be  found  than  that  from  Raystown  to  the  in- 
habitants, which  is  likewise  to-  be  considered. 

"Another  principal  objection  made  to  General  Brad- 
dock's road  is  in  regard  to  the  waters.  But  these  seldom 
swell  so  much  as  to  obstruct  the  passage.  The  Youghiog- 
heny  river,  which  is  the  most  rapid  and  soonest  filled,  I 
have  crossed  with  a  body  of  troops  after  more  than  thirty 
days*  almost  continual  rain.  In  fine,  any  difficulties  on  this 
score  are  so  trivial  that  they  really  are  not  worth  mention- 
ing. The  Monongahela,  the  largest  of  all  these  rivers,  may, 
if  necessary,  easily  be  avoided,  as  Mr.  Frazer,  the  principal 
guide,  informs  me,  by  passing  a  defile;  and  even  that,  he 
says,  may  be  shunned. 

"Again,  it  is  said,  there  are  many  defiles  on  this  road.    I 


416  WASHINGTON. 

grant  that  there  are  some,  but  I  know  of  none  that  may 
not  be  traversed,  and  I  should  be  glad  to  be  informed 
where  a  road  can  be  had  over  these  mountains  not  subject 
to  the  same  inconvenience.  The  shortness  of  the  distance 
between  Raystown  and  Loyal  Hanna  is  used  as  an  argu- 
ment against  this  road,  which  bears  in  it  something  unac- 
countable to  me;  for  I  must  beg  leave  to  ask  whether  it 
requires  more  time  or  is  more  difficult  and  expensive  to 
go  145  miles  in  a  good  road  already  made  to  our  hands 
than  to  cut  100  miles  anew,  and  a  great  part  of  the  way 
over  impassable  mountains. 

"  That  the  old  road  is  many  miles  nearer  Winchester,  in 
Virginia,  and  Fort  Frederick,  in  Maryland,  than  the  con- 
templated one,  is  incontestable;  and  I  will  here  show  the 
distances  from  Carlisle  by  the  two  routes,  fixing  the  differ- 
ent stages,  some  of  which  I  have  from  information  only, 
but  others  I  believe  to  be  exact.*  From  this  computation 
there  appears  to  be  a  difiference  of  nineteen  miles  only. 
Were  all  the  supplies  necessarily  to  come  from  Carlisle,  it 
is  well  known  that  the  goodness  of  the  old  road  is  a  suffi- 
cient compensation  for  the  shortness  of  the  other,  as  the 
wrecked  and  broken  wagons  there  clearly  demonstrate. 

"  I  shall  next  give  you  my  reasons  against  dividing  the 
army  in  the  manner  you  propose. 

*  From  Carlisle  to  Fort  Duquesne,  by  way  of  Raystown : 

Miles. 

From  Carlisle  to  Shippensburg 21 

From  Shippensburg  to  Fort  Loudoun 24 

From  Fort  Loudoun  to  Fort  Littleton   20 

From  Fort  Littleton  to  Juniata  Crossing 14 

From  Juniata  Crossing  to  Raystown  14 

93 
From  Raystown  to  Fort  Duquesne  100 


193 


RICHARD  MONTGOMERY. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  4ir 

"  First,  then,  by  dividing  our  army  we  shall  divide  our 
strength,  and  by  pursuing  quite  distinct  routes  put  it  en- 
tirely out  of  the  power  of  each  division  to  succor  the  other, 
as  the  proposed  new  road  has  no  communication  with  the 
old  one. 

"  Secondly,  to  march  in  this  manner  will  be  attended 
with  many  inconveniences.  If  we  depart  from  our  ad- 
vanced posts  at  the  same  time,  and  make  no  deposits  by 
the  way,  those  troops  that  go  from  Raystown,  as  they  will 
be  light,  with  carrying-horses  only,  will  arrive  at  Fort 
Duquesne  long  before  the  others  and  must,  if  the  enemy 
are  strong  there,  be  exposed  to  many  insults  in  their  ad- 
vance and  in  their  intrenchments  from  the  cannon  of  the 
enemy,  which  they  may  draw  out  upon  them  at  pleasure. 
If  they  are  not  strong  enough  to  do  this,  we  have  but  little 
to  apprehend  from  them  in  whatever  way  we  may  go. 

"  Thirdly,  if  that  division  which  escorts  the  convoy  is 
permitted  to  march  first  we  risk  our  all  in  a  manner,  and 
shall  be  ruined  if  any  accident  happens  to  the  artillery  and 
the  stores. 

"  Lastly,  if  we  advance  on  both  roads  by  deposits,  we 
must  double  our  number  of  troops  over  the  mountains  and 
distress  ourselves  by  victualing  them  at  these  deposits,  be- 

From  Carlisle  to  Fort  Duquesne,  by  way  of  Forts  Frederick  and 
Cumberland: 

Miles. 

From  Carlisle  to  Shippensburg   21 

From  Shippensburg  to  Chambers's  12 

From  Chambers's  to  Pacelin's  12 

From  Pacelin's  to  Fort  Frederick  12 

From  Fort  Frederick  to  Fort  Cumberland 4Q 

97 
From  Fort  Cumberland  to  Fort  Duquesne  115 

212 
37  = 


41S  WASHINGTON. 

sides  losing  the  proposed  advantage,  that  of  stealing  a 
march.  For  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  French,  who  have 
their  scouts  constantly  out,  can  be  so  deficient  in  point  of 
intelligence  as  to  be  unacquainted  with  our  motions  while 
we  are  advancing  by  slow  degrees  toward  them. 

"  From  what  has  been  said  relative  to  the  two  roads,  it 
appears  to  me  very  clear  that  the  old  one  is  infinitely  better 
than  the  other  can  be  made,  and  that  there  is  no  room  to 
hesitate  in  deciding  which  to  take,  when  we  consider  the 
advanced  season  and  the  little  time  left  to  execute  our  plan. 

"  I  shall  therefore  in  the  last  place  offer,  as  desired,  my 
sentiments  on  advancing  by  deposits.  The  first  deposit  I 
should  have  proposed  to  be  at  the  Little  Meadows  had  time 
permitted;  but  as  the  case  now  stands  I  think  it  should  be 
at  the  Great  Crossing  or  the  Great  Meadows.  The  Great 
Crossing  I  esteem  the  most  advantageous  post  on  several 
accounts,  especially  on  those  of  water  and  security  of  pas- 
sage; but  then  it  does  not  abound  with  forage,  as  the 
Meadows  do,  nor  with  so  much  level  land  fit  for  culture. 
To  this  latter  place  a  body  of  1500  men  may  march  with 
300  wagons  (or  with  carrying-horses,  which  would  be 
much  better),  allowing  each  wagon  to  carry  eight  hundred 
weight  of  flour  and  four  hundred  of  salt  meat. 

"  Our  next  deposit  will  probably  be  at  Salt  Lick,  about 
thirty-five  miles  from  the  Meadows.  To  this  place  I  think 
it  necessary  to  send  2,500  men  to  construct  some  post,  tak- 
ing six  days'  provisions  only,  which  is  sufficient  to  serve 
them  till  the  convoy  comes  up,  by  which  time  an  intrenched 
camp,  or  some  other  defensive  work  may  be  effected.  From 
hence  I  conceive  it  highly  expedient  to  detach  three  or  four 
thousand  of  the  best  troops  to  invest  the  fort,  and  to  pre- 
vent, if  possible,  an  engagement  in  the  woods,  which  of  all 
things  ought  to  be  avoided.  The  artillery  and  stores  may 
be  brought  up  in  four  days  from  Salt  Lick.    From  that  time 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  419 

I  will  allow  eighteen  days  more,  for  the  carrying-horses  to 
make  a  trip  to  Raystown  for  provisions,  passing  along  the 
old  path  by  Loyal  Hanna.  They  may  do  it  in  this  time,  as 
the  horses  will  go  down  light. 

"  From  this  statement  and  by  my  calculations,  in  which 
large  allowance  is  made  for  the  quantity  of  provisions,  as 
well  as  for  the  time  of  transporting  them,  it  appears  that 
from  the  day  on  which  the  front  division  begins  its  march 
till  the  whole  army  arrives  before  Fort  Duquesne  will  be 
thirty-four  days.  There  will  be  also  eighty-seven  days'  pro- 
vision on  hand,  allowing  for  the  consumption  on  the  march. 
Eighteen  days  added  to  the  above  will  make  fifty-two  in  all, 
the  number  required  for  our  operations.  These  ought  to 
be  finished,  if  possible,  by  the  middle  of  October  (1758)."* 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  Major  Halket,  aide  of  General 
Forbes,  Colonel  Washington  expressed  himself  as  follows 
in  relation  to  the  new  route : 

"  I  am  just  returned  from  a  conference  held  with  Colonel 
Bouquet.  I  find  him  fixed  —  I  think  I  may  say  unalterably 
fixed  —  to  lead  you  a  new  way  to  the  Ohio  through  a  road 
every  inch  of  which  is  to  be  cut  at  this  advanced  season, 
when  we  have  scarcely  time  left  to  tread  the  beaten  track 
universally  confessed  to  be  the  best  passage  through  the 
mountains. 

"  If  Colonel  Bouquet  succeeds  in  this  point  with  the 
general  all  is  lost !  all  is  lost,  indeed !  our  enterprise  is 
ruined!  and  we  shall  be  stopped  at  the  Laurel  Hill  this 
winter;  but  not  to  gather  laurels,  except  of  the  kind  which 
cover  the  mountains.  The  southern  Indians  will  turn 
against  us  and  these  Colonies  will  be  desolated  by  such  an 
accession  to  the  enemy's  strength.  These  must  be  the  con- 
sequences of  a  miscarriage,  and  a  miscarriage  the  almost' 
necessary  consequence  of  an  attempt  to  march  the  army  by 

*  Sparks's  "  Writings  of  Washington,"  vol.  II,  p.  392. 


420  WASHINGTON. 

this  new  route.  I  have  given  my  reasons  at  large  to 
Colonel  Bouquet.  He  desired  that  I  should  do  so,  that 
he  might  forward  them  to  the  General.  Should  this  hap- 
pen you  will  be  able  to  judge  of  their  weight.  I  am  unin- 
fluenced by  prejudice,  having  no  hopes  or  fears  but  for 
the  general  good.'' 

Colonel  Washington's  arguments  and  remonstrances  on 
the  subject  of  dividing  the  army  and  advancing  on  two 
different  routes  had  their  due  weight  and  that  scheme  was 
abandoned.  But  on  the  question  regarding  the  new  route, 
his  powerful  influence  was  unavailing.  The  Pennsyl- 
vanians*  wanted  a  new  road  to  the  western  country  made 

*  How  this  selfish  conduct  of  the  Pennsylvanians  was  regarded 
by  the  Virginians  under  Washington's  command  is  illustrated  by 
the  following  extract  from  a  letter  of  Robert  Munford  to  Colonel 
Bland,  dated  camp  near  For^  Cumberland,  May  4,  1758: 

"  If  'tis  honorable  to  be  in  the  service  of  one's  country,  'tis  a 
reputation  gained  by  the  most  cruel  hardships  you  can  imagine, 
occasioned  more  by  a  real  anxiety  for  its  welfare  than  by  what  the 
poor  carcass  suffers.  Every  officer  seems  discontented  in  camp, 
happy  on  command,  so  deep  is  the  interest  of  our  country  implanted 
in  the  minds  of  all.  Sometimes  the  army  wears  a  gloomy,  then 
a  joyous  aspect,  just  as  the  news  either  confirms  our  stay  here,  or 
immediate  departure.  The  general  (Forbes),  with  the  smallpox 
in  one,  the  flux  in  the  other  division  of  our  forces,  and  no  pro- 
visions ready,  are  indeed  excuses  for  our  being  here  at  present; 
yet  all  might  have  been  prevented.  A  few  hearty  prayers  are  every 
moment  offered  up  for  those  self-interested  Pennsylvanians,  who 
endeavor  to  prevail  on  our  general  to  cut  a  road  for  their  con- 
venience from  Raystown  to  Fort  Duquesne.  That  a  trifling  good 
to  particulars  should  retard  what  would  conduce  to  the  general 
welfare!  'Tis  a  set  of  dirty  Dutchmen,  they  say,  that  keep  us  here! 
It  would  be  impertinent  to  condemn,  yet  I  must  think  our  leaders 
too  deliberate  at  this  important  juncture,  when  all  are  warm  for 
action,  all  breathing  revenge  against  an  enemy  that  has  even  dared 
to  scalp  our  men  before  our  eyes.  The  amusement  we  have  in 
the  mean  time  is  only  following  the  brave  dogs  over  the  moun- 
tains for  some  miles,  and  our  sole  satisfaction  sufficient  fatigue 
to  make  us  sleep  sound."—  Bland  Papers,  p.  13. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  421 

at  the  expense  of  the  Crown,  and  at  the  risk  of  defeating 
the  object  of  the  campaign,  they  carried  their  point  with 
General  Forbes,  who,  as  commander-in-chief  had  full 
power  to  decide  the  question.  How  this  decision  affected 
Washington  may  be  seen  by  the  following  letters: 

[August  5th  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Fauquier 
from  the  Fort  Cumberland  camp : 

**  I  am  sorry  to  inform  you  that  we  are  still  encamped 
here,  and  have  little  prospect  of  de-camping,  unless  a 
fatal  resolution  takes  place,  of  opening  a  new  road  from 
Rays  Town  to  Fort  Duquesne.  In  this  event,  I  have  no 
doubt  that  the  Virginia  troops  will  be  honored  with  a  full 
share  of  the  labor,  as  they  have  already  been  in  opening 
a  communication  from  hence  to  Rays  Town,  and  doing  the 
principal  part  of  the  work  at  that  place. 

"'  I  am  just  returned  from  a  conference  held  with  Col. 
Bouquet.  In  this  conference  I  urged,  in  the  most  forcible 
terms  I  was  master  of,  the  advanced  season  as  an  argu- 
ment against  new  discoveries.  I  pressed  also  the  diffi- 
culties attending  the  cutting  a  road  over  these  mountains, 
—  known  to  me  from  experience;  the  length  of  time  it 
must  require  to  do  it ;  the  little  time  left  for  that  service ; 
the  moral  certainty  of  its  obstructing  our  march,  beyond 
what  the  advanced  season  will  admit  —  and  the  probable 
miscarriage  of  the  expedition  from  that  cause ;  and  lastly 
I  endeavored  to  represent  the  distressed  condition  the  col- 
onies would  be  reduced  to  consequent  thereon.  In  fine, 
I  said  everything  which  the  importance  of  the  subject  sug- 
gested to  me,  to  avert  a  measure  that  seemed  to  forebode 
the  manifest  ruin  of  the  expedition. 

"  This  is  the  light  in  which  it  presents  itself  to  my 
mind.  I  pray  Heaven  my  fears  may  not  be  realized!  But 
the  thoughts  of  opening  a  road  100  miles,  over  mountains 
almost  inaccessible,  at  this  advanced  season,  when  there 


42»  WASHINGTON. 

is  already  a  good  road  made, —  a  road  universally  con- 
fessed to  be  the  best  that  either  is  or  can  be  found  any- 
where through  these  mountains,  prognosticates  something 
not  quite  favorable. 

"  I  have  now  drawn  up  a  representation  of  real  facts  to 
be  presented  to  the  General;  in  which  I  think  the  advan- 
tages of  going  the  old  road,  and  moral  certainty  of  failing 
in  the  new  are  so  clearly  demonstrated  that  they  must 
strike  every  unbiassed  mind. 

"  The  small-pox  getting  among  the  troops  is  another 
unpromising  circumstance.  An  officer  and  two  men  of 
my  regiment  are  now  confined  with  it  at  Rays  Town. 

"  From  this  narrative  of  our  aflfairs  your  Honor  may 
draw  conclusions.  You  may  depend  the  statement  is  true ; 
free  from  exaggerations  and  flowing  from  a  mind  deeply 
affected  at  the  prospect  before  us.  I  hope,  as  I  once  said 
before,  that  I  see  matters  in  too  strong  a  point  of  view 
and  that  my  apprehensions  for  the  consequences  of  open- 
ing a  new  road  are  groundless." 

"  P.  S.  I  was  this  moment  presented  with  a  letter  from 
Col.  Bouquet  telHng  me,  that  the  General  had  directed 
the  other  road  to  be  opened.  I  expect,  therefore,  to  be 
ordered  that  way  immediately." 

The  next  day  Washington  again  wrote  to  Colonel  Bou- 
quet, his  immediate  commanding  officer: 

"  The  General's  orders, —  or  the  order  of  any  superior 
officer,  will,  when  once  given,  be  a  law  to  me.  I  shall 
never  hesitate  in  obeying  them;  but,  till  this  order  came 
out  [from  General  Forbes,  *  lying  indisposed  at  Carlyle'], 
I  thought  it  incumbent  on  me  to  say  what  I  could  to 
divert  you  (the  Commanding  Officer  present)  from  a  reso- 
lution of  opening  a  new  road,  of  which  I  had  the  most 
unfavorable  reports,  and  believe  from  the  height  of  the 
hills,—-  the  steepness  of  them,  the  unevenness  of  the  ground 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  423 

in  general, —  and,  what  above  all  principally  weighed  with 
me,  the  shortness  of  the  season,  that  it  was  impossible  to 
open  a  road  in  time  to  answer  our  purpose.  I  am  still 
in  this  opinion,  partly  from  my  own  observations  of  the 
country,  and  partly  from  the  information  of  as  good  judges 
as  any  that  will  be  employed.  My  duty  therefore  obliged 
me  to  declare  my  sentiments  upon  the  occasion  with  that 
candor  and  freedom  of  which  you  are  witness.  If  I  am 
deceived  in  my  opinion,  I  shall  acknowledge  my  error  as 
becomes  a  gentleman  led  astray  from  judgment,  and  not 
by  prejudice,  in  opposing  a  measure  so  conducive  to  the 
public  weal  as  you  seem  to  have  conceived  this  to  be.  If 
I,  unfortunately,  am  right,  my  conduct  will  acquit  me  of 
having  discharged  my  duty  on  this  important  occasion; 
on  the  good  success  of  which  our  all,  in  a  manner,  de- 
pends." 

August  i8,  1758,  in  view  of  a  possible  order  "  to  proceed 
with  a  body  of  troops  on  General  Braddock's  road,"  Wash- 
ington remarked  in  a  letter  to  Bouquet  on  what  this 
would  require,  and  further  said: 

"  The  greatest  part  of  my  regiment  is  on  the  other  road ; 
so  that  I  have  but  few  remaining  with  me  of  the  First 
regiment,  and  8  companies  of  the  Second  only,  whose 
officers  and  men  can  be  supposed  to  know  little  of  the 
service,  and  less  of  the  country;  and  near,  or  I  believe, 
quite  a  fifth  of  them  sick. 

*'With  regard  to  keeping  out  a  succession  of  strong 
parties  on  this  road  from  our  troops  here,  I  must  beg 
leave  to  observe,  that  we  have  not  so  much  as  one  carry- 
ing horse  to  take  provisions  out  upon,  being  under  a 
necessity  t'other  day  of  pressing  five  horses  from  some 
countrymen  (that  came  to  camp  on  business)  before  I 
could  equip  Capt.  McKenzie's  party  [four  officers  and 
75  rank  and  file]  for  a  14  days  march.    That  we  have 


4M  WASHINGTON. 

not  an  ounce  of  salt  provisions  of  any  kind  here,  and  that 
it  is  impossible  to  preserve  the  fresh,  (especially  as  we 
have  no  salt)  by  any  other  means  than  barbacuring  it  in 
the  Indian  manner. 

"A  great  many  of  Col.  Byrd's  men  [the  Second  regi- 
ment] are,  as  I  before  remarked,  very  sickly;  the  rest 
became  low  spirited  and  dejected.  Of  course  the  greatest 
share  of  the  service  must  fall  upon  the  four  companies 
of  the  First  Regiment.  This  sickness  and  depression  of 
spirits  cannot  arise,  I  conceive,  from  the  situation  of  our 
camp,  which  is  undoubtedly  the  most  healthy  and  best 
aired  in  this  vicinity,  but  is  caused,  I  apprehend,  by  the 
change  in  their  way  of  living,  (most  of  them  till  now 
having  lived  in  ease  and  afifluence),  and  by  the  limestone 
water.  The  soldiers  of  the  ist  regiment  would  be  sickly, 
like  those  of  the  2nd,  was  it  not  owing  to  some  such 
causes  as  these." 

To  Colonel  Bouquet  Washington  wrote,  August  28, 
1758: 

"  Your  favor  by  Mr.  Hoops  has  in  some  measure  re- 
vived a  hope  that  was  almost  extinguished,  of  doing  some- 
thing this  campaign.  We  must  doubtless  expect  to  en- 
counter many  difficulties  in  opening  a  new  road  through 
bad  grounds  in  a  woody  country  of  which  the  enemy  are 
possesst,  but  since  you  hope  our  point  may  be  carried  I 
would  feign  expect  the  surmounting  these  obstacles. 

"  Tis  a  melancholy  reflection,  though,  to  find  there  is 
even  a  doubt  of  success,  when  so  much  is  depending,  and 
when,  in  all  human  probability,  we  might  have  been  in 
full  possession  of  the  Ohio  by  now,  if,  rather  than  running 
ourselves  into  difficulties  and  expense  of  cutting  an  entire 
new  road  the  distance  we  have,  first  and  last  Braddock's 
had  been  adopted. 

"  I  could  wish  most  sincerely  that  our  route  was  fixed 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  425 

that  we  might  be  in  motion;  for  we  are  all  ot  us  most 
heartily  tired  and  sick  of  inactivity." 

"We  are  still  encamped  here,  very  sickly  and  dispirited  at 
the  prospect  before  us.  The  appearance  of  glory  which  we 
once  had  in  view  —  that  hope  —  that  laudable  ambition  of 
serving  our  country  and  meriting  its  applause  are  now  no 
more,  all  is  dwindled  into  ease,  sloth,  and  fatal  inactivity. 
In  a  word,  all  is  lost,  if  the  ways  of  men  in  power  like  cer- 
tain ways  of  Providence  are  not  inscrutable.  But  we  who 
view  the  actions  of  great  men  at  a  distance  can  only  form 
conjectures  agreeably  to  a  limited  perception,  and  being 
ignorant  of  the  comprehensive  schemes  which  may  be  in 
contemplation  might  mistake  egregiously  in  judging  from 
appearances,  or  by  the  lump.  Yet  every  fool  will  have  his 
notions  —  will  prattle  and  talk  away,  and  why  may  not  I  ? 
We  seem  then  in  my  opinion,  to  act  under  the  guidance  of 
an  evil  genius.  The  conduct  of  our  leaders,  if  not  actuated 
by  superior  orders,  is  tempered  with  something  —  I  do  not 
care  to  give  a  name  to.  Nothing  now  but  a  miracle  can 
bring  this  campaign  to  a  happy  issue. 

"  In  my  last  I  told  you  that  I  had  employed  my  small 
abilities  in  opposing  the  measures  then  concerting.  To 
do  this,  I  not  only  represented  the  advanced  season,  the 
difficulty  of  cutting  a  new  road  over  these  mountains,  the 
little  time  left  for  that  service,  the  moral  certainty  of  its 
obstructing  our  march,  and  the  miscarriage  of  the  expe- 
dition consequent  thereupon.  But  I  endeavored  to  rep- 
resent, also,  the  great  struggle  Virginia  had  made  this 
year  in  raising  a  second  regiment  upon  so  short  a  notice, 
and  the  great  expense  of  doing  it,  and  her  inabihty  for  a 
future  exertion  in  case  of  need.  I  spoke  my  fears  con-i 
cerning  the  southern  Indians,  in  the  event  of  a  miscar- 
riage; and  in  fine  I  spoke  all  wwavailingly,  for  the  road 
was  immediately  begun,  and  since  then  from  one  to  two 


426  WASHINGTON. 

thousand  men  have  constantly  wrought  upon  it.  By  the 
last  accounts  I  have  received,  they  had  cut  it  to  the  foot  of 
the  Laurel  Hill,  about  thirty-five  miles,  and  I  suppose  by 
this  time  1,500  men  have  taken  post  about  ten  miles  far- 
ther at  a  place  called  Loyal  Hanna,  where  our  new  fort 
is  to  be  constructed. 

"  We  have  certain  intelligence  that  the  French  strength 
at  Fort  Duquesne  did  not  exceed  800  men  the  thirteenth 
ultimo,  including  about  three  or  four  hundred  Indians.  See 
how  our  time  has  been  misspent,  behold  how  the  golden 
opportunity  is  lost,  perhaps  never  to  be  regained!  How 
is  it  to  be  accounted  for  ?  Can  General  Forbes  have  orders 
for  this  ?  Impossible !  Will  then  our  injured  country  pass 
by  such  abuses  ?  I  hope  not.  Rather  let  a  full  represen- 
tation of  the  matter  go  to  His  Majesty,  let  him  know  how 
grossly  his  interests  and  the  public  money  have  been 
prostituted.  I  wish  I  were  sent  immediately  home,  as 
an  aid  to  some  other  on  this  errand.  I  think,  without 
vanity,  I  could  set  the  conduct  of  this  expedition  in  its 
true  colors,  having  taken  some  pains,  perhaps  more  than 
any  other  man,  to  dive  to  the  bottom  of  it. 

"  It  hath  long  been  the  luckless  fate  of  Virginia  to  fall 
a  victim  to  the  views  of  her  crafty  neighbors,  and  yield 
her  honest  efforts  to  promote  their  common  interests,  at 
the  expense  of  much  blood  and  treasure !  whilst  openness 
and  sincerity  have  governed  her  measures.  We  now  can 
only  bewail  our  prospects,  and  wish  for  happier  times, 
but  these  seem  at  so  remote  a  distance  that  they  are 
indeed  rather  to  be  wished  than  expected."] 

Well  might  Washington  complain.  When  this  letter 
was  written,  parties  had  been  sent  forward  by  Colonel 
Bouquet  to  work  upon  the  new  road,  and  six  weeks  had 
already  been  wasted  in  this  fruitless  labor,  forty-five  miles 
only  being  gained  in  that  time. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  427 

[September  2,  1758,  two  months  after  his  arrival  there, 
Washington  wrote  from  the  Fort  Cumberland  camp,  to 
Governor  Fauquier: 

"  If  you  are  surprised  to  find  us  still  encamped  at  this 
place,  I  shall  only  remark  that  your  surprise  cannot  well 
exceed  my  own. 

"  In  my  last  I  informed  your  Honor  that  a  resolution 
was  taken  to  open  a  new  road  from  Rays  Town  to  Fort 
Duquesne.  It  was  instantly  begun,  and  since  that  time 
from  one  to  two  thousand  men  have  wrought  on  it  con- 
tinually [from  August  5].  They  had,  by  the  last  accounts 
I  received,  cut  it  to  the  foot  of  Laurel  Hill,  about  35  miles, 
and  I  suppose  by  this  time  have  taken  posts  at  Loyal 
Hanna,  10  miles  farther,  where  I  understand  another  fort 
is  to  be  built. 

"  What  time  it  will  require  to  build  a  fort  at  Loyal 
Hanna,  and,  after  that  is  accomplished,  what  further 
time  is  necessary  to  cut  the  road  through  very  rugged 
grounds  to  Fort  Duquesne,  I  must  leave  to  time  to  reveal. 

"  The  first  division  of  the  Artillery  has  passed  the  Alle- 
ghany hill,  and  I  suppose  may  by  now  be  got  up  with  the 
advanced  working  party.  The  second  division  I  believe 
may  have  marched  by  this;  and  they  talk  of  putting  all 
the  troops  in  motion  immediately.  We  have  not  in  our 
stores  at  Rays  Town  two  months'  provisions  for  the- army; 
and  if  the  best  judges  are  to  be  credited,  the  nipping 
frosts  will  soon  destroy  the  herbage  on  the  mountains; 
and  then,  although  the  communication  be  not  quite 
stopped,  the  subsistence  for  horses  is  rendered  very  diffi- 
cult, till  snows  and  frosts  prevent  all  intercourse  with  the 
Ohio, —  and  these  set  in  early  in  November.  The  road 
from  Rays  Town  to  Carlyle,  whence  the  provisions  and 
stores  chiefly  come,  is  perhaps  worse  than  any  other  on  the 
continent,    infinitely   worse   than   any   part    of   the   road 


428  WASHINGTON. 

from  hence  to  Fort  Duquesne,  along  General  Braddock's 
road,  and  hath  already  worn  out  the  greatest  part  of  the 
horses  that  have  been  employed  in  transporting  the 
provisions. 

"  I  can  give  your  Honor  no  satisfactory  account  of  the 
General.  He  lay  ill  at  Carlyle  a  long  time;  from  thence 
(gathering  a  little  strength)  he  moved  to  Shippensburgh, 
where  his  disorder  returned,  and  where  I  am  told  he  now 
is.  By  a  letter  received  from  him  he  hopes  soon  to  be 
at  Rays  Town,  where  he  desires  to  see  Col.  Byrd  and 
myself.  But  alas,  the  Expedition  must  either  stand  or 
fall  by  the  present  plan. 

"  In  the  conference  which  I  had  with  Colonel  Bouquet, 
I  did,  among  other  things,  to  avert  the  resolve  of  opening 
a  new  road,  represent  the  great  expense  the  colony  of 
Virginia  had  been  at  to  support  the  war;  the  charge  of 
raising  a  second  regiment  at  so  short  notice;  the  time 
limited  for  its  service;  and  therefore  the  cruelty  of  risk- 
ing the  success  of  an  expedition  upon  such  precarious 
measures,  when  so  much  depends  on  it,  and  our  inability 
to  do  more. 

"  But  I  urged  in  vain.  The  Pennsylvanians,  whose  pres- 
ent as  well  as  future  interest  it  was  to  conduct  the  expe- 
dition through  their  Government,  and  along  that  way,  be- 
cause it  secures  their  frontiers  at  present  and  the  trade 
hereafter  —  a  chain  of  forts  being  erected  —  had  preju- 
diced the  General  absolutely  against  this  road;  made  him 
believe  we  were  the  partial  people;  and  determined  him 
at  all  events  to  pursue  that  route.  So  that  their  sentiments 
are  already  known  on  this  matter  and  to  them,  as  instiga- 
tors, may  be  attributed  the  great  misfortune  of  this  mis- 
carriage. 

"  The  contractor  has  orders  to  lay  in,  at  Loyal  Hanna, 
for  4000  men  the  winter.     Whence  it  is  imagined  that 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  429 

our  expedition  for  this  campaign  will  end  there.  Should 
we  serve  to  make  up  the  troops  which  garrison  that  place, 
our  frontiers  will  thereby  not  only  be  exposed,  but  the 
soldiers,  for  want  of  clothing  and  proper  conveniences 
must  absolutely  perish,  few  of  them  having  a  whole  coat 
to  their  backs,  and  many  none  at  all. 

"  I  have  thus  given  your  Honor  a  full  and  impartial 
account  of  the  present  posture  of  affairs  here;  of  which 
any  use  may  be  made  you  shall  think  proper.  I  may  pos- 
sibly be  blamed  for  expressing  my  sentiments  so  freely, — 
but  never  can  be  ashamed  of  urging  the  truth;  and  none 
but  obvious  facts  are  stated  here.  The  General,  I  dare 
say  from  his  good  character,  can  account  fully,  and  no 
doubt  satisfactorily,  for  these  delays  that  surprise  all  who 
judge  from  appearances;  but  I  really  cannot." 

In  a  private  letter  of  September  12,  1758,  a  thought,  in 
close  line  with  one  of  the  most  striking  of  Shakespeare's 
utterances,  appears  in  Washington's  avowal  of  "  an  opin- 
ion, which  I  have  long  entertained,  that  there  is  a  Destiny 
which  has  the  control  of  'our  actions,  not  to  be  resisted 
by  the  strongest  efforts  of  Human  Nature."  The  letter 
is  most  plainly  to  one  who  had  been  so  completely  the 
object  of  Washington's  earlier  affection  that  no  other  per- 
son could  so  deeply  command  his  devotion  and  create  his 
happiness.  It  is  said  that  Mrs.  Custis,  when  Washington 
met  her,  strikingly  resembled  the  person  who  might  have 
been  Mrs.  Washington  if  she  had  not  already  provided 
herself  with  a  husband  in  Colonel  William  Fairfax's  son, 
George  William  Fairfax,  who  was  eight  years  older  than 
Washington.  If  Mrs.  George  William  Fairfax  was  the  per- 
son upon  whom  Washington's  earliest  sense  of  perfect 
womanly  charm  had  rested,  there  seems  no  reason  to 
doubt  that  it  was  when  hardly  more  than  upon  the  thresh- 
old of  manhood,  with  his  home  about  as  much  at  Belvoir, 


430  WASHINGTON. 

the  mansion  of  the  Fairfaxes,  as  at  his  brother  Law- 
rence's Mount  Vernon  mansion,  that  the  interchange  of 
interest  in  each  other  began,  with  the  amplest  security 
for  conventional  and  actual  propriety  on  both  sides,  with 
the  occasions  of  kindness  to,  and  regard  for,  a  young 
friend  appeahng  most  naturally  to  her,  and  with  the  very 
exceptional  rise  of  feeling  in  him  natural  to  maturity  be- 
yond his  years,  and  to  the  rarest  genius  for  deep,  pure, 
and  powerful  emotion;  until  both  the  one  and  the  other 
found  interest  in  each  other  awakened,  far  beyond  what 
could  be  carried  into  effect,  or  could  be  expressed  from 
one  to  the  other,  save  as  correspondence  might  venture 
a  little  way.     The  letter  was  as  follows: 

"  Yesterday  I  was  honored  with  your  short  but  very 
agreeable  favor  of  the  first  inst.  How  joyfully  I  catch 
at  the  happy  occasion  of  renewing  a  correspondence 
which  I  feared  was  disrelished  on  your  part,  I  leave  to 
time,  that  never  faiHng  expositor  of  all  things,  and  to  a 
monitor  equally  faithful  in  my  own  breast,  to  testify.  In 
silence  I  now  express  my  joy;  silence,  which,  in  some 
cases,  I  wish  the  present,  speaks  more  intelligently  than 
the  sweetest  eloquence. 

"  If  you  allow  that  any  honor  can  be  derived  from  my 
opposition  to  our  present  system  of  management  [in  the 
expedition  matters],  you  destroy  the  merit  of  it  entirely 
in  me  by  attributing  my  anxiety  [for  the  better  conduct 
and  earlier  success  of  the  campaign]  to  the  animating 
prospect  of  possessing  Mrs.  Custis,  when  —  I  need  not 
tell  you,  guess  yourself  [meaning  apparently,  to  say,  yet 
not  say,  "when,  to  return  to  the  happiness  of  Belvoir, 
of  your  society,  would  not  less  have  been  an  animating 
prospect."]  Should  not  my  own  honor  and  country's  wel- 
fare be  the  excitement?  Tis  true,  I  profess  myself  a  votary 
of  Love.     I  acknowledge  that  a  lady  is  in  the  case,  and 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  431 

further  I  confess  that  this  lady  is  known  to  you.  Yes, 
Madame,  as  well  as  she  is  to  one  who  is  too  sensible 
of  her  charms  to  deny  the  power  whose  influence  he 
feels  and  must  ever  submit  to.  I  feel  the  force  of  her 
amiable  beauties  in  the  recollection  of  a  thousand  tender 
passages  that  I  could  wish  to  obliterate,  till  I  am  bid  to 
revive  them.  But  experience,  alas!  sadly  reminds  me  how 
impossible  this  is,  and  evinces  an  opinion  which  I  have 
long  entertained,  that  there  is  a  Destiny  which  has  the 
control  of  our  actions,  not  to  be  resisted  by  the  strongest 
efforts  of  Human  Nature. 

"  You  have  drawn  me.  Dear  Madame,  or  rather  I  have 
drawn  myself,  into  an  honest  confession  of  a  simple  fact. 
Misconstrue  not  my  meaning;  doubt  it  not,  nor  expose  it. 
The  world  has  no  business  to  know  the  object  of  my  Love, 
declared  in  this  manner  to  you,  when  I  want  to  conceal  it. 
One  thing  above  all  things  in  this  world  I  wish  to  know, 
and  only  one  person  of  your  acquaintance  can  solve  me 
that,  or  guess  my  meaning.  But  adieu  to  this  till  happier 
times,  if  1  ever  shall  see  them.  The  hours  at  present  are 
melancholy  dull.  I  dare  believe  you  are  as  happy  as  you 
say.  I  wish  I  was  happy  also.  Mirth,  good  humor,  ease 
of  mind,  and  —  what  else? — cannot  fail  to  render  you  so. 

"  I  cannot  easily  forgive  the  unseasonable  haste  of  my 
last  express  [messenger],  if  he  deprived  me  thereby  of 
a  single  word  you  intended  to  add.  The  time  of  the  pres- 
ent messenger  is,  as  the  last  might  have  been,  entirely 
at  your  disposal.  I  can't  expect  to  hear  from  my  friends 
more  than  this  once  [i.  e.  by  the  return  of  his  messenger] 
before  the  fate  of  this  expedition  will  some  how  or  other 
be  determined.  I  therefore  beg  to  know  when  you  set 
out  for  Hampton,  and  when  you  expect  to  return  to  Bel- 
voir  again.  And  I  should  be  glad  also  to  hear  of  your 
speedy  departure,  as  I  shall  thereby  hope  for  your  return 


4:32  WASHINGTON. 

before  I  get  down.  The  disappointment  of  seeing  your 
family  [i.  e.  to  be  disappointed  of  seeing],  would  give 
me  much  concern.  F'rom  anything  I  can  yet  see  'tis 
hardly  possible  to  say  when  we  shall  finish.  I  don't  think 
there  is  a  possibility  of  it  till  the  middle  of  November. 
Your  letter  to  Captain  Gist  I  forwarded  by  a  safe  hand 
the  moment  it  came  to  me.  His  answer  shall  be  carefully 
transmitted. 

"  Col.  Mercer,  to  whom  I  delivered  your  message  and 
compliments,  joins  me  very  heartily  in  wishing  you  and 
the  Ladies  of  Belvoir  the  perfect  enjoyment  of  every  hap- 
piness the  world  affords.  Be  assured  that  I  am.  Dear 
Madame,  with  the  most  unfeigned  regard,  your  most 
obedient  and  most  obliged  humble  servant." 

If,  as  seems  undeniable,  there  is  in  the  expressions  used 
in  this  letter  a  bold,  yet  veiled  avowal  that  the  person  ad- 
dressed had  engaged  his  feelings  to  the, utmost  possible, 
it  seems  no  less  certain  that  the  expressions  used  imply 
that  there  had  never  been  any  understanding  between 
the  two,  through  which  he  could  have  been  sure  what  her 
feelings  were,  and  that  he  wished,  ''above  all  things  in 
this  world,"  to  be  allowed  to  know  it  if  the  interest  which 
he  felt  was  similarly  feh  by  her.  It  seems  impossible  not 
to  assume  that  she  had  not  found  an  ideal  satisfaction  in 
her  marriage,  yet  maintained  her  position  in  it  all  the 
same,  while  yet  finding  in  her  husband's  younger  comrade 
the  grounds  of  such  satisfaction,  and  not  wholly  conceal- 
ing it  from  the  object  of  her  interest.  And  strongly  as 
Washington  expressed  his  "  wish  to  know  "  the  one  thing 
of  greatest  interest  to  his  feeHngs,  as  he  turned  back  to 
his  Belvoir  experiences,  there  seems  not  the  slightest 
reason  to  suppose  that  it  could  have  meant  to  him  anything 
more  than  a  mental  satisfaction,  or  could  have  given 
him  even  a  thought  of  pause  in  the  matter  of  his  engage- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  433 

ment  to  Mrs.  Custis.  That  Washington  was  not  a  Httle 
in  the  dark  as  to  what  might  be  true  of  the  feeHngs  of 
Mrs.  Fairfax,  from  the  avoidance  on  her  part  of  giving 
him  any  indication  adequate  to  satisfy  his  "  wish  to  know," 
appears  very  plainly  from  his  recurring  to  the  matter  in 
a  second  letter,  September  25,  but  only  to  the  extent  of 
these  ^ew  words: 

"  Do  we  still  misunderstand  the  meaning  of  each  other's 
letters?  I  think  it  must  appear  so,  though  I  would  feign 
hope  the  contrary,  as  I  cannot  speak  plainer  without.  But 
I'll  say  no  more,  and  leave  you  to  guess  the  rest." 

In  this  letter  Washington  says :  "  I  am  extremely  glad 
to  find  that  Mr.  Fairfax  has  escaped  the  dangers  of  the 
siege  at  Louisberg."  The  younger  brother  of  George 
WilHam  Fairfax  was  in  the  army  with  Wolfe,  and  was 
killed  at  the  siege  of  Quebec.  If  George  William  Fairfax 
had  fallen  at  Louisberg,  the  personal  story  of  Washington 
might  have  been  different  but  for  the  fact  that  the  engage- 
ment already  made  was  as  binding  to  his  honor,  and  as 
satisfactory  to  judgment  and  feeling,  as  the  earlier  interest 
was  in  some  degree  deeper  —  after  the  manner  of  such  first 
exceptionally  deep  interest. 

If  we  recur  to  the  interest  of  the  mere  youth  in  "  Miss 
Betsy,"  an  account  of  which  is  given  at  page  48,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  youth  of  twenty  showed  very  deep  feeling 
under  the  impression  made  upon  him  by  Miss  Betsy 
Fauntleroy;  that  while  this  feeling  was  strongest  his  "  place 
of  residence  "  was  with  the  Fairfaxes,  where  the  family 
included  Mrs.  George  William  Fairfax  and  her  sister,  "  a 
very  agreeable  young  lady;"  and  that  he  avoided  becoming 
interested  in  the  young  lady,  partly  because  of  the  strength 
of  his  feeling  for  Miss  Betsy,  and  partly  because  he  felt 
convinced  that  he  would  "  only  get  a  denial,"  if  he  ven- 
tured anything.  In  this  situation  Mrs.  Fairfax  and  her 
28 


434  WASHINGTON. 

Husband's  comrade  could  hardly  fail  to  unconsciously 
come  into  a  relation  of  perhaps  unguarded  interest  on  her 
part,  and  of  unguarded  self-disclosure  on  his  part,  the 
almost  inevitable  result  of  which,  to  her,  would  be  to  know, 
as  no  one  else  could,  the  depth,  purity,  charm,  and  strength 
of  his  nature,  not  yet  revealed  to  common  observation; 
while  to  him  would  come  the  consciousness  of  attraction 
and  satisfaction,  in  a  singularly  sympathetic  and  beautiful 
woman,  very  much  beyond  anything  through  which  any 
"young  lady"  could  appeal  to  him.  Mrs.  Fairfax  was 
but  two  years  his  senior;  she  had  been  married  four  years 
in  1752;  and  with  no  more  than  commonplace  gifts  and 
excellence  in  Mr.  Fairfax,  a  deeply  sympathetic  knowledge 
of  Washington,  in  the  rarest  promise  of  his  genius  and 
character,  may  well  have  made  an  impression  as  profound, 
beyond  every  other  known  to  her  experience,  as  it  was 
necessarily  pathetic.  There  is  no  evidence  that  to  either 
the  whole  experience  was  more  than  a  transaction  of 
silence  or  of  dumb  distance  signals,  with  no  effect  what- 
ever upon  the  actual  life  of  either.  It  should  be  plain, 
however,  that  there  were  three  stages  in  the  emotional 
experience  of  Washington,  in  relation  with  three  persons, 
Betsy  Fauntleroy,  Mrs.  Fairfax,  and  Mrs.  Custis,  and  that 
upon  the  latter  fell  all  the  conscience,  honor,  and  fidelity 
of  the  mature  man.] 

General  Forbes  had  at  length  arrived  at  his  headquarters 
at  Raystown  (September  15,  1758).  The  advanced  party 
were  constructing  a  fort  at  Loyal  Hanna,  most  of  the  Vir- 
ginia troops  were  still  at  Fort  Cumberland,  whereas,  if  the 
old  route  by  Braddock's  road  had  been  adopted.  General 
Forbes  with  his  army  of  6,000  men  might  already  have 
reached  Fort  Duquesne,  at  that  time  garrisoned  by  only 
800  men. 

So  much  dissatisfied  were  the  Virginia  House   of  Bur- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  435 

gesses  with  this  state  of  affairs,  that  they  were  on  the  point 
of  recalling  the  forces  of  that  Colony  and  placing  them  on 
their  own  frontier,  but  the  apprehension  that  the  failure  of 
the  expedition  might  be  ascribed  to  this  proceeding  in- 
duced them  to  extend  the  period  of  service  for  their  troops 
to  the  end  of  the  year. 

We  have  already  seen  that  Washington  disapproved  of 
the  scheme  of  sending  forward  detachments  of  any  con« 
siderable  force  in  advance  of  the  main  body  of  the  army. 
His  excellent  judgment  on  this  head  was  fully  evinced  by 
the  disastrous  fate  of  Major  Grant's  detachment.  This 
officer  was  detailed  from  the  advanced  post  at  Loyal  Hanna 
on  the  2ist  of  September  (1758),  with  800  men,  for  the 
purpose  of  reconnoitering  the  enemy's  position  at  Fort 
Duquesne.  His  proceedings  were  singularly  imprudent. 
Having  arrived,  without  molestation,  at  a  hill  near  the  fort, 
in  the  night,  he  sent  forward  a  small  party  to  make  observa- 
tions, who  burnt  a  log  cabin  and  returned. 

Next  morning  Major  Grant  having  ordered  Major  Lewis, 
of  Washington's  Virginia  regiment,  with  a  baggage-guard 
to  a  point  two  miles  in  his  rear,  sent  forward  an  engineer 
with  a  covering  party  within  full  view  of  the  garrison  to 
take  a  plan  of  the  works.  As  if  all  these  proceedings  were 
not  sufficient  to  give  the  enemy  notice  of  his  presence,  he 
ordered  the  reveille  to  be  beaten  in  several  places. 

The  intelligent  French  commander  of  Fort  Duquesne 
observed  and  duly  appreciated  this  silly  and  impudent 
bravado  and  took  speedy  measures  to  punish  it.  Having 
posted  Indians  in  ambuscade  on  his  enemy's  flanks  he  made 
a  sudden  sally  from  the  fort,  and  soon  spread  dismay  and 
cofifusion  among  the  ranks  of  the  British  soldiers.  The 
Highlanders, who  composed  a  part  of  the  detachment,  stood 
their  ground  well  for  some  time  before  they  broke  and 
fled.     The  Virginians  from  Washington's  regiment  gave 


436  WASHINGTON, 

evidence  of  the  thorough  manner  in  which  they  had  been 
trained  for  border  warfare.  They  bore  the  brunt  of  the 
battle,  losing  out  of  eight  officers,  five  killed,  one  wounded, 
and  one  taken  prisoner,  while  of  the  rank  and  file,  out  of 
162,  sixty-two  were  killed  and  two  wounded. 

On  hearing  the  firing,  Major  Lewis  left  Captain  Bullitt 
with  fifty  Virginians  to  guard  the  baggage,  and  hastened 
to  join  in  the  fight.  He  was  speedily  engaged  with  the 
Indians  who  had  emerged  from  their  ambuscade  in  the 
woods.  Surrounded  and  nearly  overpowered,  he  surren- 
dered to  a  French  officer.  Major  Grant  was  also  taken 
prisoner.  The  main  body  of  the  detachment  was  routed, 
and  sought  safety  in  the  neighboring  forest. 

Captain  Bullitt  after  sending  ofif  a  portion  of  the  baggage- 
wagons  made  a  stand  behind  a  breastwork  formed  of  the 
remaining  ones  and  drove  back  the  Indians  who  were 
rushing  forward  to  secure  the  plunder.  He  then  effected 
a  rapid  retreat  with  the  remnant  of  the  detachment.  Scat- 
tered fugitives  from  the  main  body  who  had  been  dis- 
persed slowly  found  their  way  through  the  woods  to  Loyal 
Hanna.     The  total  loss  was  270  killed  and  42  wounded. 

Washington  received,  in  the  compliments  of  the  general, 
a  satisfactory  intimation  that  the  conduct  of  the  portion 
of  his  regiment  engaged  in  this  action  was  duly  appreciated 
at  headquarters,  and  Captain  Bullitt's  promotion  to  the 
rank  of  major  was  a  further  testimony  to  the  courage  and 
good  behavior  of  the  Virginians. 

[Washington  wrote  September  25,  1758,  to  Governor 
Fauquier,  of  this  affair: 

"The  I2th  instant  Major  Grant,  of  the  Highland  bat- 
talion, with  a  chosen  detachment  of  800  men  marched 
from  our  advanced  post,  at  Loyal  Hannan,  for  Fort  Du- 
quesne; — what  to  do  there  (unless  to  meet  the  fate  he  did) 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  437 

I  cannot  certainly  inform  you.  However,  to  get  intelli- 
gence and  annoy  the  Enemy,  was  the  ostensible  plan. 

"  On  the  13th,  in  the  night,  they  arrived  near  that  place; 
formed  upon  the  hill  in  two  columns;  and  sent  a  party 
to  the  fort  to  make  discoveries,  which  they  accompHshed 
accordingly  —  and  burned  a  log-house  not  far  from  the 
walls  without  interruption.  Stimulated  by  this  success  the 
major  kept  his  post  and  disposition  until  day;  then  de- 
tached Major  Lewis  and  part  of  his  command  two  miles 
back  to  their  baggage  guard  and  sent  an  engineer  with  a 
covering  party  in  full  view  of  the  fort,  to  take  a  plan  of 
the  works  —  at  the  same  time  causing  the  reveille  to  beat 
in  several  different  places. 

"The  Enemy  hereupon  sallied  out,  and  an  obstinate 
Engagement  began,  for  the  particulars  of  which  I  beg 
leave  to  refer  your  Honor  to  the  enclosed  letters  and  re- 
turn of  the  regiment.  Major  Lewis,  it  is  said,  met  his 
fate  in  bravely  advancing  to  sustain  Major  Grant.  Our 
officers  and  men  have  acquired  very  great  applause  for 
their  gallant  behavior  during  the  action.  I  had  the  honor 
to  be  publicly  complimented  yesterday  by  the  General  on 
the  occasion.  The  havock  that  was  made  of  them  is  a 
demonstrable  proof  of  their  obstinate  defence,  having  six 
officers  killed,  and  a  seventh  wounded,  out  of  eight.  Major 
Lewis  who  cheerfully  went  upon  this  enterprise  (when  he 
found  there  was  no  dissuading  Colonel  Bouquet  from  the 
attempt,  desired  his  friends  to  remember  that  he  had  op- 
posed the  undertaking  to  the  utmost. 

"  What  may  be  the  consequence  of  this  affair,  I  will  not 
take  upon  me  to  decide,  but  this  I  may  venture  to  declare, 
that  our  affairs  in  general  appear  with  a  greater  gloom 
than  ever;  and  I  see  no  probability  of  opening  the  road 
this  campaign.  How  then  can  we  expect  a  favorable  issue 
to  the  expedition.     I  have  used  my  best  endeavors  to  sup- 


438  WASHINGTON. 

ply  my  men  with  the  necessaries  they  want.  Seventy 
blankets  I  got  from  the  General  upon  a  promise  to  return 
them  again." 

In  the  letter  to  Mrs.  Fairfax  of  the  same  date,  the  few 
personal  words  of  which  have  been  quoted  above,  Wash- 
ington said,  of  Major  Grant's  further  proceedings  making 
observations,  etc. : 

"  Egg'd  on  rather  than  satisfied  by  this  success.  Major 
Grant  must  needs  insult  the  Enemy  next  morning  by 
beating  the  reveille  in  different  places  in  view.  This 
caused  a  great  body  of  men  to  sally  from  the  Fort,  and  an 
obstinate  engagement  to  ensue,  which  was  maintained  on 
our  side  with  the  utmost  efforts  that  bravery  could  yield, 
till,  being  overpowered  and  quite  surrounded,  they  were 
obliged  to  retreat  with  the  loss  of  22  officers  killed  and  278 
men,  besides  wounded. 

"  This  is  a  heavy  blow  to  our  affairs  here,  and  a  sad 
stroke  upon  my  regiment,  that  has  lost  out  of  8  officers, 
and  168  that  were  in  the  action,  6  of  the  former  killed  and 
a  7th  wounded.  Among  the  slain  was  our  dear  Major 
Lewis. 

"  Thus  it  is  the  lives  of  the  brave  are  often  disposed  of. 
But  who  is  there  that  does  not  rather  envy  than  regret 
a  death  that  gives  birth  to  honor  and  glorious  memory? 

"  I  am  extremely  glad  to  find  that  Mr.  Fairfax  has 
escaped  the  dangers  of  the  siege  of  Louisberg.  Already 
have  we  experienced  greater  losses  than  our  army  sus- 
tained at  that  place,  and  have  gained  not  one  obvious 
advantage.  So  miserably  has  this  expedition  been  man- 
aged that  I  expect  after  a  month's  further  trial,  and  the 
loss  of  many  more  men  by  the  sword,  cold,  and  famine, 
we  shall  give  the  expedition  over  as  impracticable  this 
season,  and  retire  to  the  inhabitants  [i.  e.  the  settlements 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  439 

on  the  frontier  from  which  they  had  marched],  condemned 
by  the  world  and  derided  by  our  friends." 

September  28th  Washington  further  wrote  that  by  a 
flag  of  truce  sent  to  Fort  Duquesne  it  had  been  ''  learned 
with  certainty  that  Major  Grant  with  two  other  Highland 
officers,  and  Major  Lewis,"  with  some  other  officers  and 
thirty  privates,  "  were  made  prisoners  in  the  late  action, 
and  sent  immediately  to  Montreal."  The  letter  also  said: 
"  We  find  that  the  frosts  have  already  changed  the  face  of 
nature  among  these  mountains.  We  know  there  is  not 
more  than  a  month  left  for  enterprise;  we  know  also  that 
a  number  of  horses  cannot  subsist  after  that  time  on  a  road 
stripped  of  its  herbage  —  and  very  few  there  are  who  ap- 
prehend that  our  affairs  can  be  brought  to  favorable  issue 
by  that  period,  nor  do  I  see  how  it  is  possible,  if  everything 
else  answered,  that  men  half  naked  can  live  in  tents  much 
longer."] 

At  length  the  main  body  of  the  army  received  orders  to 
advance  from  Raystown.  The  general  called  on  the 
colonels  of  regiments  to  submit  severally,  for  his  considera- 
tion, a  plan  for  his  march.  The  plan  submitted  by  Wash- 
ington is  given  by  Mr.  Sparks,*  and  evinces  sound  judg- 
ment and  practical  acquaintance  with  frontier  warfare. 

[From  camp  at  Rays  Town,  October  8,  1758,  Washing- 
ton sent  to  General  Forbes  plans  for  a  line  of  march,  of 
which  he  said: 

*'  They  express  my  thoughts  on  a  line  of  march  through 
a  country  covered  with  woods,  and  how  that  line  of 
march  may  be  formed  in  an  instant  into  an  order  of  battle. 
The  plan  is  calculated  for  a  forced  march  with  field-pieces 
only,  unincumbered  with  wagons.  It  represents,  first,  a 
line  of  march;  and,  secondly,  how  that  line  of  march  may 
in  an  instant  be  thrown  into  an  order  of  battle  in  the 

*  Washington's  "  Writings,"  vol.  II,  p.  313. 


440  WASHINGTON. 

woods.  This  plan  supposes  4,000  privates,  1,000  of  whom, 
(picked  men),  are  to  march  in  the  front  in  three  divisions, 
each  division  having  a  field-officer  to  command  it,  besides 
the  commander  of  the  whole ;  and  is  always  to  be  in  readi- 
ness to  oppose  the  enemy,  whose  attack,  if  the  necessary 
precautions  are  observed,  must  always  be  in  front." 

The  statement  of  particulars  of  the  operation  of  the 
plan  gives  clear  proof  of  thorough  knowledge  of  the  style 
of  warfare  required  in  service  such  as  that  of  the  expedi- 
tion in  hand.] 

Washington  at  his  own  request  was  put  in  the  advance. 
He  was  placed  at  the  head  of  a  division  numbering  1,000 
men,  with  the  temporary  rank  of  brigadier-general,  and 
ordered  to  move  in  front  of  the  main  army,  clear  the  road, 
and  take  precautions  against  a  surprise  by  the  enemy.  The 
main  body  did  not  reach  Loyal  Hanna  till  the  5th  of  No- 
vember (1758).  The  road  was  indescribably  bad,  and  frost 
and  snow  were  already  announcing  the  near  approach  of 
winter.  The  soldiers  were  dispirited,  as  well  they  might  be, 
for  they  were  ill-clad  for  the  season,  surrounded  by  a  wilder- 
ness of  forests,  and  still  at  the  distance  of  fifty  miles  from 
Fort  Duquesne. 

A  council  of  war  was  now  held  in  which,  as  Washington 
had  foreseen  and  predicted,  it  was  decided  that  it  was  in- 
expedient to  proceed  further  in  the  campaign.  To  winter 
on  the  ground  was  nearly  impossible.  The  alternative  was 
to  retreat  or  sufTer  hardships  similar  to  those  which  the 
army  under  Washington's  command  subsequently  suffered 
at  Valley  Forge. 

Fortunately,  we  should  rather  say,  providentially,  three 
prisoners  were  taken  from  whom  information  was  obtained 
of  the  actual  condition  of  Fort  Duquesne.  The  garrison 
was  greatly  reduced.  The  Indians  had  all  deserted  them. 
The  usual  supplies  of  provisions  and  the  expected  reinforce- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  44I 

ments  from  Canada  had  failed.    A  single  well-directed  blow 
would  accomplish  the  object  of  the  campaign. 

This  report  determined  General  Forbes  to  prosecute  the 
expedition.  Washington  was  advanced  in  front  as  before, 
to  open  a  road  for  the  main  body  of  the  army  and  establish 
deposits.  The  tents  and  heavy  baggage  were  left  at  Loyal 
Hanna  and  only  a  light  train  of  artillery  was  taken  forward 
with  the  army.  Inspirited  with  the  prospect  of  final  success 
both  officers  and  men  now  performed  their  duty  with 
alacrity. 

The  road  however  was  long  and  difficult,  and  it  was  not 
till  the  25th  of  November  that  the  army  arrived  at  Fort 
Duquesne.  Instead  of  having  to  prosecute  a  siege  and 
assault,  General  Forbes  took  quiet  possession  of  the  fort, 
which  was  already  abandoned  by  the  enemy. 

Colonel  Bradstreet's  capture  of  Fort  Frontenac  had  cut 
off  the  usual  supplies  and  reinforcements  intended  for  this 
post,  and  the  garrison  consisting  of  only  500  men  had  on 
the  preceding  night  evacuated  the  place,  after  setting  it  on 
fire,  and  proceeded  down  the  Ohio  in  boats. 

[October  30,  1758,  Washington  wrote  to  Governor  Fau- 
quier from  the  camp  at  Loyal  Hanna,  explaining  how  he 
had  made  a  sudden  march  from  Rays  Town,  and  further 
saying: 

*'  My  march  to  this  post  gave  me  an  opportunity  of 
forming  a  judgment  of  the  road,  and  I  can  truly  say  that 
it  is  indescribably  bad.  Had  it  not  been  for  an  accidental 
discovery  of  a  new  passage  over  the  Laurel  Hill,  the  car- 
riages must  inevitably  have  stopped  on  the  other  side. 
This  is  a  fact  nobody  here  takes  it  upon  him  to  deny. 
The  general,  and  great  part  of  the  troops,  etc.,  being  yet 
behind,  and  the  weather  growing  very  inclement,  must, 
I  apprehend,  terminate  our  expedition  for  this  year  at  this 
place.    But  as  our  affairs  are  now  drawing  to  a  crisis,  and 


44^  WASHINGTON. 

a  good  or  bad  conclusion  of  them  will  shortly  ensue,  I 
choose  to  suspend  my  judgment,  as  well  as  a  further  ac- 
count of  the  matter,  to  a  future  day." 

November  5th  Washington  further  wrote  to  Fauquier: 

"  The  General  being  arrived,  with  most  of  the  artillery 
and  troops,  we  expect  to  move  forward  in  a  very  few  days, 
encountering  every  hardship  that  an  advanced  season, 
want  of  clothes,  and  a  small  stock  of  provisions  will  ex- 
pose us  to.  But  it  is  no  longer  a  time  for  pointing  out 
difficulties,  and  I  hope  my  next  will  run  in  a  more  agree- 
able strain." 

The  circumstances  under  which  the  forward  movement 
was  being  made  are  not  mentioned  in  Washington's  letters 
until  that  of  November  28th,  reporting  arrival  at  Fort 
Duquesne  on  the  25th,  after  the  French  had  burned  down 
the  fort  and  gone  down  the  Ohio.  In  the  letter  referred 
to,  Washington  said: 

"  The  possession  of  this  fort  has  been  a  matter  of  sur- 
prise to  the  whole  army,  and  we  cannot  attribute  it  to  more 
probable  causes  than  those  of  weakness,  want  of  pro- 
visions, and  desertion  of  their  Indians.  Of  these  circum- 
stances we  were  luckily  informed  by  three  prisoners  who 
providentially  fell  into  our  hands  at  Loyal  Hanna,  at  a 
time  when  we  despaired  of  proceeding,  and  a  council  of 
war  had  determined  that  it  was  not  advisable  to  advance 
further  this  season;  but  the  information  above  caused  us 
to  march  on  without  tents  or  baggage,  and  with  a  light 
train  of  artillery  only,  with  which  we  have  happily  suc- 
ceeded." 

Of  the  particulars  of  this  success  Washington  wrote  to 
General  Forbes,  November   17,  from  camp  near  Bushy 
Run: 
"After  the  most  constant  labor  from  daybreak  till  night, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  443 

we  were  able  to  open  the  road  to  this  place,  only  about 
six  miles  from  our  last  camp. 

"  I  shall  struggle  hard  to  be  up  with  Colonel  Armstrong 
tonight,  being  but  two  and  a  half  miles  from  his  last  camp." 

That  night  he  wrote  further: 

"  I  have  opened  the  road  between  seven  and  eight  miles 
today,  and  am'  yet  three  miles  short  of  Colonel  Armstrong, 
who  marched  at  8  o'clock." 

The  next  day  he  wrote  from  Armstrong's  camp  that  he 
had  arrived  there  about  1 1  o'clock,  having  opened  the  road 
before  him;  that  he  halted  there  to  slaughter  and  dress 
beef  for  the  troops;  and  that  he  should  go  forward  with 
i,ooo  men  at  3  the  next  morning.  The  march  thus  re- 
newed led  directly  on  to  Fort  Duquesne,  possession  of 
which,  or  rather  of  the  spot  on  which  it  had  stood,  was 
had  November  25th.  In  the  letter  reporting  this  to  Gov- 
ernor Fauquier,  Washington  said: 

"  I  cannot  help  premising,  in  this  place,  the  hardships 
the  troops  have  undergone,  and  the  naked  condition  they 
now  are  in,  in  order  that  you  may  judge  if  it  is  not  neces- 
sary that  they  should  have  some  little  recess  from  fatigue, 
and  time  to  provide  themselves  with  necessaries,  for  at 
present  they  are  destitute  of  every  comfort  of  life.  If  I 
do  not  get  your  orders  to  the  contrary,  I  shall  march  the 
troops  under  my  command  directly  to  Winchester. 

"  This  fortunate,  and  indeed  unexpected  success  of  our 
arms  will  be  attended  with  happy  effects.  The  Delawares 
are  suing  for  peace,  and  I  doubt  not  that  other  tribes  on 
the  Ohio  will  follow  their  example.  A  trade,  free,  open, 
and  upon  equitable  terms,  is  what  they  seem  much  to 
stickle  for,  and  I  do  not  know  so  effectual  a  way  of  rivet- 
ing them  to  our  interest,  as  sending  out  goods  immediately 
to  this  place  for  that  purpose.  It  will,  at  the  same  time, 
be  a  means  of  supplying  the  garrison  with  such  necessaries 


444  WASHINGTON. 

as  may  be  wanted;  and  I  think,  those  Colonies  which  are 
as  greatly  interested  as  Virginia  is,  should  neglect  no 
means  in  their  power  to  establish  and  support  a  strong 
garrison  here.  Our  business,  wanting  this,  will  be  but  half 
finished;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  we  obtain  a  firm  and 
lasting  peace,  if  this  end  is  once  accomplished. 

"  General  Forbes  is  very  assiduous  in  getting  these 
matters  settled  upon  a  solid  basis,  and  has  great  merit 
(which  I  hope  will  be  rewarded)  for  the  happy  issue  which 
he  has  broug-ht  our  affairs  to,  infirm  and  worn  down  as 
he  is." 

The  general  had  followed  in  the  rear  of  his  army  in  a 
litter,  and  a  few  weeks  later  he  died  at  Philadelphia.] 

After  taking  possession  of  the  fort  General  Forbes* 
caused  the  works  to  be  repaired  and  gave  it  the  name  of 
Fort  Pitt,  in  honor  of  the  Prime  Minister.  The  flourishing 
city  of  Pittsburg  now  stands  near  the  ruins  of  "  Old  Fort 
Duquesne." 

Two  hundred  men  from  Washington's  regiment  formed 
the  garrison  of  Fort  Pitt.  This  measure  was  adopted  against 
his  remonstrances.  General  Forbes  declining  to  leave  a 
detachment  from  the  regular  army  in  consequence  of  an 
opinion  he  had  formed  that  by  such  a  step  he  would  exceed 
his  authority. 

Washington  marched  back  with  the  remainder  of  his  com- 

*John  Forbes  was  a  native  of  Petincrief,  Fifeshire,  Scotland, 
and  was  educated  as  a  physician.  He  abandoned  his  profession, 
entered  the  army,  and  in  1745  was  advanced  to  the  rank  of  lieu- 
tenant-colonel. He  acted  as  quartermaster-general  of  the  army 
under  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  in  1757  was  appointed  briga- 
dier-general, and  sent  to  America.  He  was  successful  in  the  expe- 
dition against  Fort  Duquesne  — the  works  being  abandoned  on 
his  approach.  After  having  concluded  treaties  with  the  Indian 
tribes  on  the  Ohio,  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  and  died  in  that 
city,  March  13,  1759,  aged  49. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  4:4:5 

mand  to  Winchester.  On  his  way  he  stopped  at  Loyal 
Hanna  whence  he  addressed  a  circular  letter  to  the  frontier 
inhabitants,  requesting  them  to  forward  supplies  to  the 
Virginians  at  Fort  Pitt,  and  promising  remuneration. 
Leaving  his  troops  at  Winchester,  he  proceeded  to  Wil- 
liamsburg, to  take  his  seat  in  the  Legislature  of  Virginia,  of 
which  he  had  been  elected  a  member  while  he  was  on  duty 
at  Fort  Cumberland. 

[December  2,  1758,  Washington  wrote  from  Loyal 
Hanna  that  he  had  made  the  attempt  to  proceed  to  Vir- 
ginia at  once  to  represent  the  situation  on  the  Ohio  to 
Governor  Fauquier,  and  had  been  prevented  by  want  of 
horses,  those  which  he  had  being  "  entirely  knocked  up." 
He  further  said: 

"  The  General  has,  in  his  letters,  told  you  what  gar- 
rison he  proposed  to  leave  at  Fort  Duquesne,  but  the  want 
of  provisions  rendered  it  impossible  to  leave  more  than 
200  men  in  all  there.  These,  without  great  exertions, 
must,  I  fear,  abandon  the  place  or  perish.  To  prevent,  as 
far  as  possible,  either  of  these  events  happening,  I  have 
by  this  conveyance  written  a  circular  letter  to  the  back 
inhabitants  of  Virginia,  setting  forth  the  great  advantages 
of  keeping  that  place;  the  improbability  of  doing  it  with- 
out their  immediate  assistance;  that  they  may  travel  safely 
out  while  we  hold  that  post;  and  that  they  will  be  allowed 
good  prices  for  such  species  of  provisions  as  they  shall 
carry. 

"  Unless  the  most  effectual  measures  are  taken  early  in 
the  spring  to  reinforce  the  garrison  at  Fort  Duquesne,  the 
place  will  inevitably  be  lost,  and  then  our  frontiers  will 
fall  into  the  same  distressed  condition  that  they  have  been 
in  for  some  time  past.  For  I  can  very  confidently  assert, 
that  we  never  can  secure  them  properly,  if  we  again  lose 
our  footing  on  the  Ohio,  as  we  consequently  lose  the  in- 


446  WASHINGTON. 

terest  of  the  Indians.  I  therefore  think  that  every  neces- 
sary preparation  should  be  making,  not  a  moment  should 
be  lost  in  taking  the  most  speedy  and  efficacious  steps 
in  securing  the  infinite  advantages  which  may  be  derived 
from  our  regaining  possession  of  that  important  country. 
"That  the  preparatory  steps  should  immediately  be 
taken  for  securing  the  communication  from  Virginia,  by 
constructing  a  post  at  Redstone  Creek,  which  would 
greatly  facilitate  the  supplying  of  our  troops  on  the  Ohio, 
where  a  formidable  garrison  should  be  sent  as  soon  as  the 
season  will  admit  of  it. 

"That  a  trade  with  the  Indians  should  be  upon  such 
terms,  and  transacted  by  men  of  such  principles,  as  would 
at  the  same  time  turn  out  to  the  reciprocal  advantage  of 
the  colony  and  the  Indians,  and  which  would  effectually 
remove  those  bad  impressions  that  the  Indians  received 
from  the  conduct  of  a  set  of  rascally  fellows,  divested  of 
all  faith  and  honor;  and  give  us  such  an  early  opportunity 
of  estabHshing  an  interest  with  them  as  would  be  pro- 
ductive of  the  most  beneficial  consequences,  on  getting  a 
large  share  of  the  fur  trade,  not  only  of  the  Ohio  Indians, 
but,  in  time,  of  the  numerous  nations  possessing  the  back 
country  westward  of  it.  And  to  prevent  this  advantageous 
commerce  from  suffering  in  its  infancy,  by  the  sinister 
views  of  designing,  selfish  men  of  the  different  provinces,  I 
humbly  conceive  it  absolutely  necessary  that  commissioners 
from  each  of  the  colonies  be  appointed  to  regulate  the 
mode  of  that  trade,  and  to  fix  it  on  such  a  basis  that  all 
the  attempts  of  one  colony  undermining  another,  and 
thereby  weakening  and  diminishing  the  general  system, 
might  be  frustrated. 

"Although  none  can  entertain  a  higher  sense  of  the  great 
importance  of  maintaining  a  post  on  the  Ohio  than  myself, 
yet,  under  the  present  circumstances  of  my  regiment,  I 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  447 

would  by  no  means  have  agreed  to  leave  any  part  of  it 
there,  had  not  the  General  given  an  express  order  for  it. 
Our  men  that  are  left  there  are  in  such  a  miserable  situa- 
tion, having  hardly  rags  to  cover  their  nakedness,  that  un- 
less provision  is  made  by  the  country  for  supplying  them 
immediately  they  must  inevitably  perish;  and  if  the  First 
Virginia  Regiment  is  to  be  kept  up  any  longer,  or  any 
services  are  expected  therefrom,  they  should  forthwith  be 
clothed  as  they  are.  By  their  present  shameful  nakedness, 
the  advanced  season,  and  the  inconceivable  fatigues  of  an 
uncommonly  long  and  laborious  campaign,  they  are  ren- 
dered totally  incapable  of  any  kind  of  service ;  and  sickness, 
death,  and  desertion  must,  if  their  wants  are  not  speedily 
supplied,  greatly  reduce  its  numbers.  To  replace  them 
with  equally  good  men  will,  perhaps,  be  found  impos- 
sible."] 

As  the  frontier  of  Virginia  was  now  relieved  from  the 
incursions  of  the  French  and  Indians,  Washington's 
patriotic  motives  for  continuing  in  the  military  service  had 
ceased  to  operate.  No  royal  commission  such  as  had 
been  tendered  to  Sir  William  Pepperrell  for  his  single  suc- 
cessful campaign  at  Louisburg  was  offered  for  his  accept- 
ance and  his  military  career  for  the  present  was  closed. 
About  the  end  of  the  year  (1758),  he  resigned  his  com- 
mission as  colonel  of  the  first  Virginia  regiment  and  com- 
mander-in-chief of  all  the  troops  raised  in  the  Colony. 

"  The  officers  whom  he  commanded,"  says  Marshall,* 
"  were  greatly  attached  to  him.  They  manifested  their 
esteem  and  their  regret  at  parting  by  a  very  affectionate 
address,  expressive  of  the  high  opinion  they  entertained 
both  of  his  military  and  private  character. 

"  This  opinion  was  not  confined  to  the  officers  of  his 
regiment ;  it  was  common  to  Virginia  and  had  been  adopted 

♦Life  of  Washington,  chapter  I. 


448  WASHINGTON. 

by  the  British  officers  with  whom  he  served.  The  duties 
he  performed  though  not  splendid,  were  arduous,  and  were 
executed  with  zeal  and  with  judgment.  The  exact  disci- 
pline he  estabHshed  in  his  regiment  when  the  temper  of 
Virginia  was  extremely  hostile  to  discipline  does  credit  to 
his  military  character,  and  the  gallantry  the  troops  dis- 
played whenever  called  into  action,  manifests  the  spirit  in- 
fused into  them  by  their  commander. 

"  The  difficulties  of  his  situation  while  unable  to  cover 
the  frontier  from  the  French  and  Indians  who  were  spread- 
mg  death  and  desolation  in  every  quarter  were  incalculably 
great,  and  no  better  evidence  of  his  exertions  under  these 
distressing  circumstances  can  be  given  than  the  undimin- 
ished confidence  still  placed  in  him  by  those  whom  he  was 
unable  to  protect. 

"The  efforts  to  which  he  incessantly  stimulated  his 
country  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  possession  of  the  Ohio ; 
the  system  for  the  conduct  of  the  war  which  he  continually 
recommended;  the  vigorous  and  active  measures  always 
urged  upon  those  by  whom  he  was  commanded ;  manifest 
an  ardent  and  enterprising  mind,  tempered  by  judgment, 
and  quickly  improved  by  experience." 

In  a  former  part  of  this  chapter,  we  have  mentioned  a 
visit  of  Washington  to  the  seat  of  government  at  Williams- 
burg for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  supplies  and  an  augmen- 
tation of  pay  for  the  soldiers  of  his  regiment.  It  was  during 
this  journey  that  he  became  acquainted  with  the  lady  with 
whom  he  was  afterward  united  in  marriage.  Her  maiden 
name  was  Martha  Danbridge.  She  was  descended  from  an 
ancient  family  that  migrated  to  the  Colony.  She  was  born 
in  the  county  of  New  Kent,  May,  1732.  At  the  age  of 
seventeen  she  had  been  married  to  Col.  Daniel  Parke 
Custis,  a  planter  of  the  same  county,  and  resided  at  the 
"White  House,"  on  the  banks  of  Pamunkey  river. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  449 

Mrs.  Custis  was  early  left  a  widow  with  two  children* 
and  a  large  fortune.  She  was  on  a  visit  to  the  family  of  a 
neighbor,  Mr.  Chamberlayne,  when  Washington  first  met 
her  on  his  journey  from  Winchester  to  Williamsburg. f 

"  It  was  in  1758,"  says  her  biographer, J  "  that  an  officer 
attired  in  a  military  undress  and  attended  by  a  body  servant 
tall  and  militaire  as  his  chief,  crossed  the  ferry  called  Wil- 
liams', over  the  Pamunkey,  a  branch  of  the  York  river.  On 
the  boat  touching  the  southern  or  New  Kent  side,  the 
soldier's  progress  was  arrested  by  one  of  those  personages 
who  give  the  beau  ideal  of  the  Virginia  gentleman  of  the 
old  regime  —  the  very  soul  of  kindness  and  hospitality.  He 
would  hear  of  no  excuse  on  the  officer's  part  for  declining 
the  invitation  to  stop  at  his  house.  In  vain  the  colonel 
pleaded  important  business  at  Williamsburg ;  Mr.  Chamber- 
layne insisted  that  his  friend  must  dine  with  him  at  the 
very  least.  He  promised  as  a  tempation  to  introduce  him 
to  a  young  and  charming  widow  who  chanced  then  to  be 
an  inmate  of  his  dwelling.  At  last  the  soldier  surrendered 
at  discretion,  resolving  however  to  pursue  his  journey  the 
same  evening.  They  proceeded  to  the  mansion.  Mr. 
Chamberlayne  presented  Colonel  Washington  to  his  various 
guests  among  whom  was  the  beautiful  Mrs.  Custis.  Tradi- 
tion says  that  the  two  were  favorably  impressed  with  each 
other  at  the  first  interview. 

The  acquaintance  thus  auspiciously  commenced  was  fol- 
lowed by  an  engagement  soon  after,  the  marriage  being 
deferred  till  the  close  of  the  campaign.  It  took  place  at  the 
lady's  residence,  the  "  White  House,"  on  the  6th  of  January, 

1759- 
The  mansion  of  Mount  Vernon,  which  became  their  resi- 

*  Martha,  who  died  at  Mount  Vernon,  1777,  and  John,  who  died 
in  1781. 
t  Custis,  "  Memoir  of  Martha  Washington." 
t  Mrs.  Ellet,  "  Women  of  the  Revolution." 
29 


450  WASHINGTON. 

dence  soon  after  the  marriage,  was  then  a  very  small  build- 
ing compared  with  its  present  extent,  and  the  numerous  out- 
buildings attached  to  it.  The  mansion-house  consisted  of 
four  rooms  on  a  floor  forming  the  center  pf  the  present 
building,  and  remained  pretty  much  in  that  state  up  to  1774, 
when  Colonel  Washington  repaired  to  the  first  Congress  in 
Philadelphia,  and  from  thence  to  the  command-in-chief 
of  the  armies  of  his  country  assembled  before  Cambridge, 
July,  1775.  The  commander-in-chief  returned  no  more  to 
reside  at  Mount  Vernon  till  after  the  peace  of  1783.  Mrs. 
Washington  accompanied  the  general  to  the  lines  before 
Boston  and  witnessed  its  siege  and  evacuation.  She  then 
returned  to  Virginia,  the  subsequent  campaigns  being  of 
too  momentous  a  character  to  allow  of  her  accompanying 
the  army. 

At  the  close  of  each  campaign  an  aide-de-camp  repaired 
to  Mount  Vernon  to  escort  her  to  the  headquarters.  The 
arrival  of  Mrs.  Washington  at  camp  was  an  event  much 
anticipated  and  was  always  the  signal  for  the  ladies  of  the 
general  officers  to  repair  to  the  bosoms  of  their  lords.  The 
arrival  of  the  aide-de-camp  escorting  the  plain  chariot  with 
the  neat  postillions  in  their  scarlet  and  white  liveries  was 
deemed  an  epoch  in  the  army  and  served  to  diffuse  a  cheer- 
ing influence  amid  the  gloom  which  hung  over  our  destinies 
at  Valley  Forge,  Morristown,  and  West  Point.  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington always  remained  at  the  headquarters  till  the  opening 
of  the  campaign,  and  often  remarked  in  after  life  that  it  had 
been  her  fortune  to  hear  the  first  cannon  at  the  opening 
and  the  last  at  the  closing  of  all  the  campaigns  of  the 
Revolutionary  War.  During  the  whole  of  that  mighty 
period  when  we  struggled  for  independence,  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington preserved  her  equanimity,  together  with  a  degree 
of  cheerfulness  that  inspired  all  around  her  with  the  bright- 
est hopes  for  our  ultimate  success.* 

*  Custis,  "  Memoir  of  Martha  Washington." 


PART    111. 
OPENING  SCENES  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WASHINGTON  IN  RETIREMENT— CAMPAIGN  OF  1759. 

1759. 

THE  marriage  of  Washington  to  Mrs.  Custis  brought 
with  it  a  large  accession  to  his  fortune.  By  it  he 
became  entitled  to  a  third  part  of  the  estate  of  the 
deceased  Daniel  Parke  Custis,  and  he  was  invested  with  the 
care  of  the  other  two-thirds  by  a  decree  of  the  general  court 
which  he  obtained  in  order  to  strenghten  the  power  he  pre- 
viously had  in  consequence  of  his  wife's  administration  of 
the  whole  estate.* 

The  addition  thus  made  to  Washington's  estate  was  not 
less  than  $100,000.  He  had  also  the  estate  of  Mount  Ver- 
non and  considerable  tracts  of  land  in  various  parts  of 
Virginia,  selected  while  he  was  employed  in  surveying. 

Mrs.  Custis  at  the  time  of  her  second  marriage  had  two 
children,  a  son  six  years  old  and  a  daughter  four,  to  each 
of  whom  was  left  a  third  of  the  estate  of  their  father. 
Washington  became  guardian  of  these  children,  an  office 
which  he  discharged  with  strict  fidelity  and  paternal  af- 
fection. 

*  Letter  to   Robert   Gary.— Sparks*   "Writings  of  Washington/' 

vol.  II,  p.  328. 

(451) 


45»  WASHINGTON. 

The  newly-married  couple  remained  at  the  "  White 
House,"  the  late  residence  of  the  Custis  family  for  three 
months  after  their  marriage,  during  which  time  Washing- 
ton appears  to  have  given  his  attention  to  the  aflfairs  of  the 
estate.  They  then  retired  to  Washington's  favorite  resi- 
dence. Mount  Vernon. 

During  the  first  year  of  their  residence  in  this  delightful 
home  occurred  the  campaign  of  1759,  which,  although 
Washington  took  no  active  part  in  it,  forms  too  important 
and  influential  a  portion  of  the  history  of  his  "  Times,"  to 
be  passed  over  in  silence.  We  shall  therefore  notice  briefly 
its  more  important  events. 

The  plan  of  the  campaign  was  that  three  powerful  armies 
should  enter  the  French  possessions  by  three  different 
routes  and  attack  all  their  strongholds  at  nearly  the  same 
time.  At  the  head  of  one  division  of  the  army,  Brigadier- 
General  Wolfe,  who  had  so  recently  signalized  himself  at 
the  siege  of  Louisburg,  was  to  ascend  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
lay  siege  to  Quebec,  escorted  by  a  strong  fleet  to  co-operate 
with  his  troops. 

The  central  and  main  body  composed  of  British  and  pro- 
vincials was  to  be  conducted  against  Ticonderoga  and 
Crown  Point,  by  the  able,  but  cautious.  General  Amherst, 
the  new  commander-in-chief,  who,  after  making  himself 
master  of  these  places,  was  to  proceed  over  Lake  Champlain 
and  by  the  way  of  Richelieu  river  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  and 
descending  that  river  form  a  junction  with  General  Wolfe 
before  the  walls  of  Quebec.  This  latter  service  however 
he  was  not  destined  to  accomplish  in  season  to  render  any 
assistance  to  Wolfe. 

The  third  army  to  be  composed  principally  of  provincials 
reinforced  by  a  strong  body  of  friendly  Indians  under 
the  direction  of  Sir  William  Johnson  was  to  be  commanded 
by  General  Prideaux,  who  was  to  lead  this  division  first 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  453 

against  Niagara  and  after  the  reduction  of  that  place,  to 
embark  on  Lake  Ontario  and  proceed  down  the  St.  Law- 
rence against  Montreal. 

Early  in  the  winter,  General  Amherst  commenced  prepa- 
rations for  his  part  of  the  enterprise,  but  it  was  not  till  the 
last  of  May  that  his  troops,  12,000  in  number,  were  as- 
sembled at  Albany,  and  it  was  as  late  as  the  22d  of  July 
(1759),  when  after  crossing  Lake  George  in  boats,  batteaux, 
and  rafts,  he  appeared  before  Ticonderoga. 

Montcalm,  who  had  so  successfully  resisted  the  attack 
of  Abercrombie  in  the  preceding  year,  was  no  longer  in 
command  at  Ticonderoga  being  engaged  in  preparations 
for  the  defense  of  Quebec.  The  garrison  consisting  of  only 
400  men  was  under  the  command  of  Bourlamarque.  Per- 
ceiving the  utter  folly  of  attempting  a  defense  against  such 
fearful  odds,  he  dismantled  the  fortifications  and  abandoned 
them  as  well  as  those  at  Crown  Point,  and  retreated  to  Isle 
aux  Noix,  a  convenient  point  for  concentrating  a  force  for 
the  defense  of  Montreal  and  the  province. 

Instead  of  pursuing  him  with  a  view  to  a  speedy  junction 
of  his  forces  with  those  of  General  Wolfe,  General  Amherst 
committed  the  grave  error  of  wasting  time  in  repairing  the 
works  at  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point.  Meantime  the 
enemy  were  assembling  a  force  of  between  three  and  four 
thousand  at  Isle  aux  Noix. 

The  result  of  General  Amherst's  extreme  caution  and 
delay  was  that  he  failed  to  effect  a  junction  of  his  forces 
with  those  of  General  Wolfe,  and  his  army  at  the  close  of 
the  season  went  into  winter  quarters  at  Crown  Point. 

In  the  prosecution  of  the  enterprise  against  Niagara,  Gen- 
eral Prideaux  had  embarked  with  an  army  on  Lake  Ontario, 
and  on  the  6th  of  July  (1759),  landed  without  opposition 
within  about  three  miles  from  the  fort  which  he  invested  in 
form.    While  directing  the  operations  of  the  siege  he  was 


454  WASHINGTON. 

killed  by  the  bursting-  of  a  cohorn,  and  the  command  de- 
volved on  Sir  William  Johnson.*  That  general,  prosecuting 
with  judgment  and  vigor  the  plan  of  his  predecessor,  pushed 
the  attack  of  Niagara  with  an  intrepidity  that  soon  brought 
the  besiegers  within  lOO  yards  of  the  covered  way. 

Meanwhile,  the  French,  alarmed  at  the  danger  of  losing 
a  post  which  was  a  key  to  their  interior  empire  in  America, 
had  collected  a  large  body  of  regular  troops  from  the  neigh- 
boring garrisons  of  Detroit,  Venango,  and  Presqu'  Isle, 
with  which  and  a  party  of  Indians  they  resolved  if  possible 
to  raise  the  siege.  Apprised  of  their  intention  to  hazard 
a  battle,  General  Johnson  order  his  light  infantry,  sup- 
ported by  some  grenadiers  and  regular  foot,  to  take  post 
between  the  cataract  of  Niagara  and  the  fortress ;  placed  the 

*  Sir  William  Johnson  was  born  in  Ireland,  about  the  year  1715. 
Early  in  life  he  went  to  America  with  his  uncle,  Sir  Peter  Warren, 
and,  after  hesitating  for  some  time  as  to  what  profession  he  should 
adopt,  at  length  entered  the  army,  in  which  he  gradually  rose  to 
the  rank  of  major-general.  In  1755  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
an  expedition  against  Crown  Point,  which  however  he  did  not 
succeed  in  capturing,  although  he  obtained  a  brilliant  victory 
over  the  French  under  General  Dieskau,  whom  he  took  prisoner. 
Parliament  testified  its  approbation  of  Johnson's  conduct  on  this 
occasion  by  voting  him  £5,000.  In  1759  he  commanded  the  pro- 
vincials of  New  York,  and  acted  under  Prideaux  at  the  siege  of 
Niagara,  as  related  in  the  text. 

He  now  devoted  his  attention  to  the  establishment  of  a  more 
permanent  and  extensive  communion  than  had  previously  existed 
between  the  British  and  the  Indians,  and  effected  several  advan- 
tageous treaties  with  the  Senecas  and  other  tribes.  In  June,  1760, 
he  induced  1,000  of  the  Iroquois  to  join  General  Amherst  at 
Oswego;  and,  subsequently,  encouraged  the  colonists  to  intermarry 
with  the  aboriginal  inhabitants.  He  was  at  length  chosen  colonel 
of  the  Six  Nations,  as  well  as  superintendent  of  Indian  affairs  for 
the  northern  parts  of  America;  and  settling  on  the  banks  of  the 
Mohawk  river,  he  soon  became  well  acquainted  with  the  manners 
and  language  of  the  Indians,  relative  to  which  he  sent  an  inter- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  455 

auxiliary  Indians  on  his  flanks,  and  together  with  this 
preparation  for  an  engagement  took  effectual  measures  for 
securing  his  lines  and  bridHng  the  garrison. 

About  nine  in  the  morning  of  the  24th  of  July  (1759), 
the  enemy  appeared  and  the  horrible  sound  of  the  warwhoop 
from  the  hostile  Indians  was  the  signal  of  battle.  The 
French  charged  with  great  impetuosity  but  were  received 
with  firmness,  and  in  less  than  an  hour  were  completely 
routed. 

This  battle  decided  the  fate  of  Niagara.  Sir  William 
Johnson  the  next  morning  opened  negotiations  with  the 
French  commandant,  and  in  a  few  hours  a  capitulation  was 
signed.  The  garrison  consisting  of  607  men  were  to  march 
out  with  the  honors  of  war  to  be  embarked  on  the  lake 
and  carried  to  New  York,  and  the  women  and  children 
were  to  be  carried  to  Montreal.    The  reduction  of  Niagara 

esting  communication  to  the  Royal  Society,  in  November,  1772. 
He  died  about  two  years  afterward,  leaving  a  son,  who  succeeded 
to  the  baronetage. 

Brave,  energetic,  and  enterprising,  Johnson  was  particularly 
well  qualified  for  the  services  on  which  he  was  employed.  He  is 
described  as  having  possessed  such  a  genius  for  acquiring  popu- 
larity among  all  kinds  of  men  that  the  regular  troops  respected, 
the  provincials  loved,  and  the  Indians  almost  adored  him.  It  is 
added  that  he  was  a  man  of  perfect  integrity,  and  employed  his 
talents  solely  for  the  benefit  of  his  country.  The  victory  which 
he  obtained  over  Dieskau,  although  it  did  not  lead  to  the  result 
that  had  been  expected,  infused  confidence  into  the  British,  who 
appear  to  have  been  greatly  disheartened  by  the  recent  defeat, 
by  the  French  ard  Indians,  of  General  Braddock's  forces  near 
Fort  Duquesne.  The  capture  of  Niagara  effectually  broke  oflf, 
according  to  the  Annual  Register  of  the  period,  "  that  communi- 
cation so  much  talked  of,  and  so  much  dreaded,  between  Canada 
and  Louisiana;  and  by  this  stroke,  one  of  the  capital  political 
designs  of  the  French,  which  gave  occasion  to  the  war,  was 
defeated  in  its  direct  and  immediate  object." 


456  WASHINGTON. 

effectually  cut  off  the  communication  between  Canada  and 
Louisiana. 

The  expedition  against  the  capital  of  Canada  was  the 
most  daring  and  important.  Strong  by  nature  and  still 
stronger  by  art,  Quebec  had  obtained  the  appellation  of  the 
Gibraltar  of  America,  and  every  attempt  against  it  had 
failed.  It  was  now  commanded  by  Montcalm,  an  officer  of 
distinguished  reputation,  and  its  capture  must  have  appeared 
chimerical  to  any  one  but  Pitt.  He  judged  rightly  however 
that  the  boldest  and  most  dangerous  enterprises  are  often 
the  most  successful,  especially  when  committed  to  ardent 
minds  glowing  with  enthusiasm  and  emulous  of  glory.  Such 
a  mind  he  had  discovered  in  General  Wolfe,  whose  conduct 
at  Louisburg  had  attracted  his  attention.  He  appointed 
him  to  conduct  the  expedition  and  gave  him  for  assistants, 
Brigadier-Generals  Monckton,  Townshend,  and  Murray; 
all,  like  himself,  young  and  ardent. 

Early  in  the  season  he  sailed  from  Halifax  with  8,000 
troops,  and  near  the  last  of  June  (1759)  landed  the  whole 
army  on  the  island  of  Orleans,  a  few  miles  below  Quebec. 
From  this  position  he  could  take  a  near  and  distinct  view 
of  the  obstacles  to  be  overcome.  These  were  so  great  that 
even  the  bold  and  sanguine  Wolfe  perceived  more  to  fear 
than  to  hope. 

"  When,"  he  says  in  a  letter  to  Pitt,  "  that  succors  of  all 
kinds  had  been  thrown  into  Quebec,  that  five  batteries  of 
regular  troops,  some  of  the  troops  of  the  Colony,  and  every 
Canadian  that  was  able  to  bear  arms,  besides  several  nations 
of  savages  had  taken  the  field  in  a  very  advantageous 
situation,  I  could  not  flatter  myself  that  I  should  be  able 
to  reduce  the  place.  I  sought  however  an  occasion  to  at- 
tack their  army  knowing  well  that  with  these  troops  I  was 
able  to  fight  and  that  a  victory  might  disperse  them." 

Quebec  stands  on  the  north  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  457 

and  consists  of  an  upper  and  lower  town.  The  lower  town 
lies  between  the  river  and  a  bold  and  lofty  eminence  which 
runs  parallel  to  it  far  to  the  westward. 

At  the  top  of  this  eminence  is  a  plain  upon  which  the 
upper  town  is  situated.  Below  or  east  of  the  city  is  the  river 
St.  Charles,  whose  channel  is  rough  and  whose  banks  are 
steep  and  broken.  At  a  short  distance  farther  down  is  the 
Montmorency,  and  between  these  two  rivers  and  reaching 
from  one  to  the  other  was  encamped  the  French  army, 
strongly  intrenched,  and  superior  in  number  to  that  of  the 
English,  but  they  were  chiefly  Canadians.  There  was  also 
a  large  auxiliary  force  of  Indians. 

General  Wolfe  took  possession  of  Point  Levi  on  the 
southern  bank  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  there  erected  bat- 
teries against  the  town.  The  cannonade  which  was  kept 
up,  though  it  destroyed  many  houses,  made  but  little  im- 
pression on  the  works  which  were  too  strong  and  too  re- 
mote to  be  materially  affected,  their  elevation  at  the  same 
time  placing  them  beyond  the  reach  of  the  fleet.  Convinced 
of  the  impossibility  of  reducing  the  place  unless  he  could 
erect  batteries  on  the  north  side  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  Wolfe 
soon  decided  on  more  daring  measures. 

The  northern  shore  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  a  considerable 
distance  above  Quebec  is  so  bold  and  rocky  as  to  render 
a  landing  in  the  face  of  an  enemy  impracticable.  If  an 
attempt  were  made  below  the  town,  the  river  Montmorency 
passed,  and  the  French  driven  from  their  intrenchments, 
the  St.  Charles  would  present  a  new  and  perhaps  insuper- 
able barrier. 

With  every  obstacle  fully  in  view,  Wolfe  heroically  ob- 
serving that  a  "  victorious  army  finds  no  difficulties,"  re- 
solved to  pass  the  Montmorency  and  bring  Montcalm  to 
an  engagement.  In  pursuance  of  this  resolution  thirteen 
companies  of  English  grenadiers  and  part  of  the  second 


458  WASHINGTON. 

battalion  of  Royal  Americans  were  landed  at  the  mouth 
of  that  river,  while  two  divisions  under  Generals  Townshend 
and  Murray  prepared  to  cross  it  higher  up.  Wolfe's  plan 
was  to  attack  first  a  redoubt  close  to  the  water's  edge,  ap- 
parently beyond  reach  of  the  fire  from  the  enemy's  intrench- 
ments,  in  the  belief  that  the  P>ench  by  attempting  to 
support  that  fortification  would  put  it  in  his  power  to 
bring  on  a  general  engagement,  or  if  they  should  submit 
to  the  loss  of  the  redoubt,  that  he  could  afterward  ex- 
amine their  situation  with  coolness  and  advantageously 
regulate  his  future  operations. 

On  the  approach  of  the  British  troops  the  redoubt  was 
evacuated,  and  the  general  observing  some  confusion  in  the 
French  camp  changed  his  original  plan  and  determined 
not  to  delay  an  attack.  Orders  were  immediately  dis- 
patched to  the  Generals  Townshend  and  Murray  to  keep 
their  divisions  in  readiness  for  fording  the  river,  and  the 
grenadiers  and  Royal  Americans  were  directed  to  form  on 
the  beach  until  they  could  be  properly  sustained. 

These  troops  however  not  waiting  for  support  rushed  im- 
petuously toward  the  enemy's  intrenchments,  but  they  were 
received  with  so  strong  and  steady  a  fire  from  the  French 
musketry  that  they  were  instantly  thrown  into  disorder  and 
obliged  to  seek  shelter  at  the  redoubt  which  the  enemy 
had  abandoned.  Detained  here  awhile  by  a  dreadful  thun- 
derstorm they  were  still  within  reach  of  a  severe  fire  from 
the  French,  and  many  gallant  officers  exposing  their  persons 
in  attempting  to  form  their  troops  were  killed,  the  whole  loss 
amounting  to  nearly  500  men.  The  plan  of  attack  being 
efifectually  disconcerted,  the  English  general  gave  orders 
for  repassing  the  river  and  returning  to  the  Isle  of  Orleans. 

Compelled  to  abandon  the  attack  on  that  side,  Wolfe 
deemed  that  advantage  might  result  from  attempting  to 
destroy  the  French  fleet,  and  by  distracting  the  attention 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  459 

of  Montcalm  with  continual  descents  upon  the  northern 
shore.  General  Murray  with  1,200  men  in  transports  made 
two  vigorous  but  abortive  attempts  to  land,  and  though 
more  successful  in  the  third  he  did  nothing  more  than  burn 
a  magazine  of  warlike  stores.  The  enemy's  fleet  was  effectu- 
ally secured  against  attacks,  either  by  land  or  water,  and  the 
commander-in-chief  was  again  obliged  to  submit  to  the 
mortification  of  recalling  his  troops. 

At  this  juncture,  intelligence  arrived  that  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point  had  been  abandoned,  but  that  General 
Amherst,  instead  of  pressing  forward  to  their  assistance, 
was  preparing  to  attack  the  Isle  aux  Noix. 

While  Wolfe  rejoiced  at  the  triumph  of  his  brethren  in 
arms  he  could  not  avoid  contrasting  their  success  with  his 
own  disastrous  efforts.  His  mind,  alike  lofty  and  suscep- 
tible, was  deeply  impressed  by  the  disasters  at  Mont- 
morency; and  his  extreme  anxiety,  preying  upon  his  deli- 
cate frame,  sensibly  affected  his  health.  He  was  observed 
frequently  to  sigh,  and  as  if  life  was  only  valuable  while  it 
added  to  his  glory,  he  declared  to  his  intimate  friends  that 
he  would  not  survive  the  disgrace  which  he  imagined  would 
attend  the  failure  of  his  enterprise. 

In  a  letter  written  to  Mr.  Pitt  at  this  time  he  says :  "  The 
French  did  not  attempt  to  interrupt  us,  but  some  of  their 
savages  came  down  to  murder  such  wounded  as  could  not 
be  brought  off,  and  to  scalp  the  dead,  as  their  custom  is." 
His  situation  seemed  growing  desperate  and  his  health  be- 
gan to  fail  him.  In  his  letter  to  Pitt,  which  was  written 
from  his  headquarters  at  Montmorency  on  the  2d  of  Sep- 
tember (1759),  i^oi*e  than  a  month  after  this  failure,  he  con- 
fessed that  he  had  descended  to  the  dubiousness  and  de- 
spondency of  consulting  a  council  of  war.  After  saying 
that  he  had  been  suffering  by  a  fever,  he  adds :    "  I  found 


460  WASHINGTON. 

myself  so  ill  and  am  still  so  weak  that  I  begged  the  general 
officers  to  consult  together  for  the  public  utility.  *  *  * 
To  the  uncommon  strength  of  this  country  the  enemy  have 
added,  for  the  defense  of  the  river,  a  great  number  of  float- 
ing batteries  and  boats.  By  the  vigilance  of  these  and  the 
Indians  round  our  posts,  it  has  been  impossible  to  execute 
anything  by  surprise.  *  *  *  ^^  have  the  whole  force 
of  Canada  to  oppose.  In  the  situation  there  is  such  a  choice 
of  difficulties  that  I  own  myseif  at  a  loss  how  to  determine. 
The  affairs  of  Great  Britain  require  the  most  vigorous 
measures,  but  then  the  courage  of  a  handful  of  brave  men 
should  be  exerted  only  where  there  is  some  hope  of  a  favor- 
able event."  When  this  letter  reached  England  it  excited 
consternation  and  anger.  Pitt  feared  that  he  had  been  mis- 
taken in  his  favorite  general,  and  that  the  next  news  would 
be  either  that  he  had  been  destroyed  or  had  capitulated. 
But  in  the  conclusion  of  his  melancholy  epistle  Wolfe  had 
said  he  would  do  his  best  —  and  that  best  turned  out 
a  miracle  in  war.  He  declared  that  he  would  rather  die 
than  be  brought  to  a  court-martial  for  miscarrying. 

Nothing  however  could  shake  the  resolution  of  this 
valiant  commander  or  induce  him  to  abandon  the  attempt. 
In  a  council  of  his  principal  officers,  called  on  this  critical 
occasion,  it  was  resolved  that  all  the  future  operations 
should  be  above  the  town.  The  camp  at  the  Isle  of  Or- 
leans was  accordingly  abandoned,  and  the  whole  army  hav- 
ing embarked  on  board  the  fleet,  a  part  of  it  was  landed 
at  Point  Levi  and  a  part  higher  up  the  river. 

Montcalm,  apprehending  from  this  movement  that  the 
invaders  might  make  a  distant  descent  and  come  on  the 
back  of  the  city  of  Quebec,  detached  M.  de  Bougainville, 
with  1,500  men,  to  watch  their  motions  and  prevent  their 
landing. 

Baffled  and  harassed  in  all  his  previous  assaults  General 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  461 

Wolfe  seems  to  have  determined  to  finish  the  enterprise  by 
a  single  bold  and  determined  effort.  The  admiral  sailed 
several  leagues  up  the  river,  making  occasional  demonstra- 
tions of  a  design  to  land  troops,  and  during  the  night 
a  strong  detachment  in  fiat-bottomed  boats  fell  silently 
down  the  stream  to  a  point  about  a  mile  above  the  city. 

The  beach  was  shelving,  the  bank  high  and  precipitous, 
and  the  only  path  by  which  it  could  be  scaled  was  now  de- 
fended by  a  captain's  g-uard  and  a  battery  of  four  guns. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Howe,*  with  the  van,  soon  clambered 
up  the  rocks,  drove  away  the  guard,  and  seized  upon  the 
battery. 

The  army  landed  about  an  hour  before  day  and  by  day- 
break was  marshaled  on  the  Heights  of  Abraham. 

Montcalm  could  not  at  first  believe  this  intelligence,  but 
as  soon  as  assured  of  its  truth,  he  made  all  prudent  haste 
to  decide  a  battle  which  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  avoid. 
Leaving  his  camp  at  Montmorency  he  crossed  the  river  St. 
Charles  with  the  intention  of  attacking  the  English  army. 

No  sooner  did  Wolfe  observe  this  movement  than  he  be- 
gan to  form  his  order  of  battle.  His  troops  consisted  of 
six  battalions  and  the  Louisburg  grenadiers.  The  right 
wing  was  commanded  by  General  Monckton  and  the  left 
by  General  Murray.  The  right  flank  was  covered  by  the 
Louisburg  grenadiers  and  the  rear  and  left  by  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Howe's  light  infantry. 

The  form  in  which  the  French  advanced,  indicating  an 
intention  to  outflank  the  left  of  the  English  army,  General 
Townshend  was  sent  with  the  battalion  of  Amherst  and 
the  two  battalions  of  Royal  Americans  to  that  part  of  the 
line,  and  they  were  formed  en  potence^  so  as  to  present  a 
double  front  to  the  enemy.    The  body  of  reserve  consisted 

*  Sir  William  Howe,  subsequently  distinguished  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War. 


4G^  WASHINGTON, 

of  one  regiment  drawn  up  in  eight  divisions  with  large  in- 
tervals. 

The  dispositions  made  by  the  French  general  were  not 
less  masterly.  The  right  and  left  wings  were  composed 
about  equally  of  European  and  Colonial  troops.  The  center 
consisted  of  a  column  formed  of  two  battalions  of  regulars. 
Fifteen  hundred  Indians  and  Canadians,  excellent  marks- 
men, advancing  in  front,  screened  by  surrounding  thickets, 
began  the  battle.  Their  irregular  fire  proved  fatal  to  many 
British  officers,  but  it  was  soon  silenced  by  the  steady  fire 
of  the  English. 

About  9  in  the  morning  the  main  body  of  the  French 
advanced  briskly  to  the  charge  and  the  action  soon  became 
general.  Montcalm  having  taken  post  on  the  left  of  the 
French  army  and  Wolfe  on  the  right  of  the  English,  the 
two  generals  met  each  other  where  the  battle  was  most 
severe.  The  English  troops  reserved  their  fire  until  the 
French  had  advanced  within  forty  yards  of  their  line,  and 
then  by  a  general  discharge  made  terrible  havoc  among 
their  ranks.  The  fire  of  the  English  was  vigorously  main- 
tained and  the  enemy  everywhere  yielded. 

General  Wolfe  who,  exposed  in  the  front  of  his  battalions, 
had  been  wounded  in  the  wrist,  betraying  no  symptoms  -of 
pain  wrapped  a  handkerchief  round  his  arm  and  continued 
to  encourage  his  men.  Soon  after  he  received  a  shot  in  the 
groin,  but  concealing  the  wound  he  was  pressing  on  at  the 
head  of  his  grenadiers  with  fixed  bayonets,  when  a  third 
ball  pierced  his  breast. 

Perceiving  that  his  wound  was  mortal  his  only  anxiety 
appears  to  have  been  that  the  soldiers  might  not  be  dis- 
heartened by  seeing  him  fall.  Leaning  on  a  lieutenant  for 
support,  he  said  "  Let  not  my  brave  fellows  see  me  drop." 
He  was  conveyed  to  the  rear,  where,  careless  about  himself, 
he  discovered  in  the  agonies  of  death  the  greatest  solicitude 


LIFE  AND  TIMES,  463 

concerning  the  result  of  the  battle.  Faint  and  exhausted 
with  the  pain  of  his  wounds  he  rested  his  head  on  the  arm 
of  an  officer.  He  was  aroused  by  cries  of  "  They  fly,  they 
fly !  see  them  fly !  "  "  Who  fly  ?  '"'  exclaimed  the  dying  hero. 
"  The  French,"  answered  his  attendant.  Nerving  himself 
to  a  last  effort  of  duty  he  gave  a  hasty  order  for  cutting 
off  the  enemy's  retreat,  and  then  turning  on  his  side,  he 
said  "  Now,  God  be  praised,  I  will  die  in  peace,"  and  ex- 
pired. 

We  cannot  forbear  quoting  in  this  connection  the  simple 
and  feeling  observations  of  General  Townshend  respecting 
his  heroic  friend,  whose  fate  threw  so  affecting  a  luster  on 
this  memorable  victory :  "  I  am  not  ashamed  to  own  to 
you  that  my  heart  does  not  exult  in  the  midst  of  this  suc- 
cess. I  have  lost  but  a  friend  in  General  Wolfe;  our 
country  has  lost  a  sure  support  and  a  perpetual  honor.  If 
the  world  were  sensible  at  how  dear  a  price  we  have  pur- 
chased Quebec  in  his  death,  it  would  damp  the  public  joy. 
Our  best  consolation  is  that  Providence  seemed  not  to 
promise  that  he  should  remain  long  among  us.  He  was 
himself  sensible  of  the  weakness  of  his  constitution  and 
determined  to  crowd  into  a  few  years  actions  that  would 
have  adorned  length  of  life." 

The  army,  not  disconcerted  by  the  fall  of  their  general, 
continued  the  action  under  Monckton  on  whom  the  com- 
mand now  devolved,  but  who,  receiving  a  ball  through  his 
body,  soon  yielded  the  command  to  Genei^al  Townshend. 

Montcalm,  fighting  in  front  of  his  battalions,  received  a 
mortal  wound*  about  the  same  time,  and  General  Senezer- 
gns,  the  second  in  command,  also  fell.  The  British  grena- 
diers pressed  on  with  their  bayonets.      General    Murray, 

*  Montcalm  was  every  way  worthy  to  be  a  competitor  of  Wolfe. 
He  had  the  truest  military  genius  of  any  officer  whom  the  French 
had  ever  employed  in  America.    After  he  had  received  his  mortal 


464  WASHINGTON. 

briskly  advancing  with  the  troops  under  his  direction,  broke 
the  center  of  the  French  army. 

The  Highlanders  drawing  their  broadswords  completed 
the  confusion  of  the  enemy,  and  after  having  lost  their  first 
and  second  in  command  the  right  and  center  of  the  French 
were  entirely  driven  from  the  field,  and  the  left  was  follow- 
ing their  example  when  Bougainville  appeared  in  the  rear, 
with  the  1,500  men  who  had  been  sent  to  oppose  the  land- 
ing of  the  English.  Two  battalions  and  two  pieces  of  ar- 
tillery were  detached  to  meet  him,  but  he  retired  and  the 
British  troops  were  left  the  undisputed  masters  of  the  field. 
The  loss  of  the  French  was  much  greater  than  that  of  the 
English.  The  corps  of  French  regulars  was  almost  entirely 
annihilated.  The  killed  and  wounded  of  the  EngHsh  army 
did  not  amount  to  600  men. 

Although  Quebec  was  still  strongly  defended  by  its  fortifi- 
cations, and  might  possibly  be  relieved  by  Bougainville  or 
from  Montreal,  yet  General  Townshend  had  scarcely 
finished  a  road  in  the  bank  to  get  his  heavy  artillery  for  a 
siege,  when  the  inhabitants  capitulated,  on  condition  that 
during  the  war  they  might  still  enjoy  their  own  civil  and 
religious  rights.  A  garrison  of  5,000  men  was  left  under 
General  Murray,  and  the  fleet  sailed  out  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence. 

The  fall  of  Quebec  did  not  immediately  produce  the  sub- 
mission of  Canada.  The  main  body  of  the  French  army, 
which,  after  the  battle  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham,  retired 
to  Montreal,  and  which  still  consisted  of  ten  battalions  of 
regulars,  had  been  reinforced  by  10,000  Canadian  militia 
and  a  body  of  Indians. 

wound  he  was  carried  into  the  city;  and  when  informed  that  it 
was  mortal  his  reply  was,  "  I  am  glad  of  it."  On  being  told  that 
he  could  survive  but  a  few  hours,  "  So  much  the  better,"  he 
replied,  "  I  shall  not  live  to  see  the  surrender  of  Quebec.'* 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  465 

With  these  forces  M.  de  Levi,  who  had  succeeded  the 
Marquis  of  Montcalm  in  the  chief  command,  resolved  to 
attempt  the  recovery  of  Quebec.  He  had  hoped  to  carry 
the  place  by  a  coup  de  main,  during  the  winter,  but  on  recon- 
noitering  he  found  the  outposts  so  well  secured,  and  the 
Governor  so  vigilant  and  active,  that  he  postponed  the  en- 
terprise until  spring. 

In  the  month  of  April  (1760),  when  the  upper  part  of  the 
St.  Lawrence  was  so  open  as  to  admit  of  transportation  by 
water,  his  artillery,  military  stores,  and  heavy  baggage 
were  embarked  at  Montreal  and  fell  down  the  river  under 
convoy  of  six  frigates,  and  M.  de  Levi,  after  a  march  of 
ten  days  arrived  with  his  army  at  Point  au  Tremble,  within 
a  few  miles  of  Quebec. 

General  Murray,  to  whom  the  care  of  maintaining  the 
English  conquest  had  been  intrusted,  had  taken  every  pre- 
caution to  preserve  it,  but  his  troops  had  suffered  so  much 
by  the  extreme  cold  of  the  winter,  and  by  the  want  of  vege- 
tables and  fresh  provisions  that  instead  of  5,000,  the  origi- 
nal number  of  his  garrison,  there  were  not  at  this  time 
above  3,000  men  fit  for  service. 

With  this  small  but  valiant  body  the  English  general  re- 
solved to  meet  the  enemy  in  the  field,  and  on  the  28th  of 
April  marched  out  to  the  Plains  of  Abraham  where,  near 
Sillery,  he  attacked  the  French  under  M.  de  Levi  with  great 
impetuosity.  He  was  received  with  firmness,  and  after  a 
fierce  encounter,  finding  himself  outflanked  and  in  danger 
of  being  surrouiided  by  superior  numbers,  he  called  off  his 
troops  and  retired  into  the  city. 

In  this  action  the  loss  of  the  English  was  near  1,000  men, 
and  that  of  the  French  still  greater.  The  French  general 
lost  no  time  in  improving  his  victory.  On  the  very  even- 
ing of  the  battle  he  opened  trenches  before  the  town,  but 
30 


466  WASHINGTON. 

it  was  the  nth  of  May  before  he  could  mount  his  batteries 
and  bring  his  guns  to  bear  on  the  fortifications. 

By  that  time  General  Murray,  who  had  been  indefati- 
gable in  his  exertions,  had  completed  some  outworks  and 
planted  so  numerous  an  artillery  on  his  ramparts  that  his 
fire  was  very  superior  to  that  of  the  besiegers,  and  in  a 
manner  silenced  their  batteries.  A  British  fleet  arriving 
most  opportunely  a  few  days  after,  M.  de  Levi  immediately 
raised  the  siege  and  precipitately  retired  to  Montreal. 

Here  the  Marquis  of  Vaudreuil,  Governor-General  of 
Canada,  had  fixed  his  headquarters  and  determined  to  make 
his  last  stand.  For  this  purpose  he  called  in  all  his  detach- 
ments and  collected  around  him  the  whole  force  of  the 
Colony. 

The  English,  on  the  other  hand,  were  resolved  on  the 
total  annihilation  of  the  French  power  in  Canada,  and  Gen- 
eral Amherst  prepared  to  overwhelm  it  with  an  irresistible 
superiority  of  numbers. 

Almost  on  the  same  day  the  armies  from  Quebec,  from 
Lake  Ontario,  and  from  Lake  Champlain  were  concen- 
trated before  Montreal,  and  M.  de  Vaudreuil  found  him- 
self obliged  on  the  8th  of  September,  1760,  to  sign  a 
capitulation  by  which  that  city  and  the  whole  of  Canada 
were  transferred  to  British  dominion.  He  obtained  liberal 
stipulations  for  the  good  treatment  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
particularly  the  free  exercise  of  the  Catholic  faith,  and  the 
preservation  of  the  property  belonging  to  the  religious 
communities.  He  even  demanded  that  the  bishop  should 
continue  to  be  appointed  by  the  French  monarch,  but  this 
was  of  course  refused.  The  possession  of  Canada,  as  well 
as  of  all  the  adjoining  countries,  was  confirmed  to  Britain 
by  the  peace  of  Paris,  signed  on  the   loth  of  February, 

1763- 
The  population  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  was  stated  by 


'LIFE  AND  TIMES.  467 

Governor  Murray  to  amount  to  69,275,  consisting  mostly 
of  cultivators,  a  frugal,  industrious,  and  moral  race ;  with  a 
noblesse,  also  very  poor,  but  much  respected,  among  them. 
The  Indians  converted  to  Catholics  were  estimated  at  7,400. 
The  inhabitants  were  involved  in  great  calamity  by  the  re- 
fusal of  the  French  Government  to  pay  the  bills  drawn  and 
the  paper  currency  issued  by  M.  Bigot,  the  late  intendant, 
who  had  been  guilty  of  most  extensive  peculation.  The 
gross  sum  is  stated  by  Raynal  at  80,000,000  livres 
(i3,333,ooo  sterling),  but  considering  the  small  number  and 
poverty  of  the  people  we  cannot  help  suspecting  it  to 
be  much  exaggerated.  It  is  said  that  the  claims  were,  on 
grounds  of  equity,  reduced  to  38,000,000;  though,  accord- 
ing to  M'Gregor,  no  more  was  received  in  turn  for  them 
than  £250,000  in  money,  and  £125,000  in  bonds,  which 
never  became  effective. 

The  terms  in  favor  of  the  French  residents  were  faith- 
fully and  even  liberally  fulfilled  by  the  British  Government. 
All  offices  however  were  conferred  on  British  subjects,  who 
then  consisted  only  of  military  men,  with  not  quite  500 
petty  traders,  many  of  whom  were  ill-fitted  for  so  import- 
ant a  situation.  They  showed  a  bigoted  spirit  and  an  offen- 
sive contempt  of  the  old  inhabitants,  including  even  their 
class  of  nobles.  General  Murray,  notwithstanding,  strenu- 
ously protected  the  latter,  without  regard  to  repeated  com- 
plaints made  against  him  to  the  ministry  at  home,  and  by 
this  impartial  conduct  he  gained  their  confidence  in  a  de- 
gree which  became  conspicuous  on  occasion  of  the  great 
revolt  of  the  united  Colonies. 

During  that  momentous  period,  though  pressingly  in- 
vited to  assist  the  latter,  the  Canadians  never  swerved  from 
their  allegiance.  With  a  view  to  conciliate  them  the  "  Que- 
bec Act,"  passed  in  1774,  changed  the  English  civil  law, 
which  had  been  at  first  introduced,  for  the  ancient  system 


468  WASHINGTON. 

called  the  Coutume  de  Paris.  The  French  language  was  also 
directed  to  be  employed  in  the  law  courts,  and  other  changes 
made  with  the  view  of  gratifying  that  nation.  These  con- 
cessions did  not  however  give  universal  satisfaction,  es- 
pecially as  they  were  not  attended  with  any  grant  of  a  na- 
tional representation. 

In  the  prosecution  of  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and 
France,  which  was  terminated  by  the  peace  of  Paris  Feb- 
ruary lo,  1763,  after  a  conflict  lasting  seven  years  the  ad- 
vantages which  Great  Britain  derived  from  the  Colonies 
were  severely  felt  by  her  enemies.  Upward  of  400  priva- 
teers which  were  fitted  out  of  the  ports  of  the  British 
Colonies  successfully  cruised  on  French  property.  These 
not  only  ravaged  the  West  India  islands  belonging  to  his 
most  Catholic  Majesty,  but  made  many  captures  on  the 
coast  of  France.  Besides  distressing  the  French  nation  by 
privateering,  the  Colonies  furnished  23,800  men  to  co-oper- 
ate with  the  British  regular  forces  in  North  America.  They 
also  sent  powerful  aids,  both  in  men  and  provisions,  out 
of  their  own  limits,  which  facilitated  the  reduction  of  Mar- 
tinique and  of  Havana.  The  success  of  their  privateers  — 
the  co-operation  of  their  land  forces  —  the  convenience  of 
their  harbors,  and  the  contiguity  to  the  West  India  islands, 
made  the  Colonies  great  acquisitions  to  Britain  and  for- 
midable adversaries  to  France.  From  their  growing  im- 
portance the  latter  had  much  to  fear.  Their  continued 
union  with  Great  Britain  threatened  the  subversion  of  the 
commerce  and  American  possessions  of  France. 

After  hostilities  had  raged  nearly  eight  years,  a  general 
peace  was  concluded,  on  terms  by  which  France  ceded 
Canada  to  Great  Britain.  The  Spaniards  having  also  taken 
part  in  the  war  were,  at  the  termination  of  it,  induced  to  re- 
Hnquish  to  the  same  power  both  East  and  West  Florida. 
This  peace  gave  Great  Britain  possession  of  an  extent  of 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  469 

country  equal  in  dimensions  to  several  of  the  kingdoms  of 
Europe.  The  possession  of  Canada  in  the  north  and  of  the 
two  Floridas  in  the  south,  made  her  almost  sole  mistress 
of  the  North  American  continent. 

This  laid  a  foundation  for  future  greatness  which  ex- 
cited the  envy  and  the  fears  of  Europe.  Her  navy,  her 
commerce,  and  her  manufactures  had  greatly  increased 
when  she  held  but  a  part  of  the  continent,  and  when  she 
was  bounded  by  the  formidable  powers  of  France  and  Spain. 
Her  probable  future  greatness,  when  without  a  rival,  and 
with  a  growing  vent  for  her  manufactures  and  increasing 
employment  for  her  marine,  threatened  to  destroy  that  bal- 
ance of  power  which  European  sovereigns  had  for  a  long 
time  endeavored  to  preserve. 


CHAPTER  II. 

LIFE  AT  MOUNT  VERNON. 

1759-1763. 

DURING  the  stirring  events  which  are  recorded  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  Washington  remained  at  Mount 
Vernon,  busily  engaged  in  the  care  of  his  extensive 
plantation.  He  occasionally  refers  to  them  however  in  his 
letters.  Writing  to  his  London  agent  in  September,  1759, 
he  says :  "  The  scale  of  fortune  in  America  is  turned 
greatly  in  our  favor,  and  success  has  become  the  companion 
of  our  fortunate  generals.  It  would  be  folly  in  me  to  at- 
tempt particularizing  their  actions,  since  you  receive  ac- 
counts in  a  channel  so  much  more  direct  than  from  hence." 
In  another  letter  to  the  same  correspondent  (May  10,  1760) 
he  says :  "  The  French  are  so  well  drubbed,  and  seem  so 
much  humbled  in  America  that  I  apprehend  our  generals 
will  find  it  no  difficult  matter  to  reduce  Canada  to  our 
obedience  this  summer.  But  what  may  be  Montgomery's 
fate  in  the  Cherokee  country  I  cannot  so  readily  deter- 
mine. It  seems  he  has  made  a  prosperous  beginning,  hav- 
ing penetrated  into  the  heart  of  the  country,  and  he  is  now 
advancing  his  troops  in  high  health  and  spirits  to  the  re- 
lief of  Fort  Loudoun.  But  let  him  be  wary.  He  has  a 
crafty,  subtle  enemy  to  deal  with  that  may  give  him  most 
trouble  when  he  least  expects  it." 

No  man  ever  understood  the  character  of  the  Indians 
more  thoroughly  than  Washington.  His  intercourse  with 
them  during  that    portion  of   the    Seven  Years'  War,  in 

(470) 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  471 

which  he  took  an  active  part,  had  made  him  well  acquainted 
with  their  native  disposition  and  their  peculiar  tactics  in 
war.  How  justly  his  apprehensions  for  the  safety  of  Mont- 
gomery and  his  detachment  were  conceived,  will  appear 
from  the  following  account  of  his  expedition,  extracted  from 
Dr.  Holmes's  American  Annals. 

During  these  decisive  operations  in  the  north,  the  Eng- 
lish colonists  in  the  south  sustained  no  small  calamity  from 
the  natives.  The  French  were  no  sooner  driven  from  Fort 
Duquesne  than  their  baleful  influence  appeared  among  the 
Upper  Cherokees.  Unhappily,  at  that  time,  a  quarrel  with 
the  Virginians  contributed  to  alienate  those  Indian  tribes 
from  the  English,  with  whom  they  had  long  been  in  alliance. 
The  Cherokees,  agreeably  to  treaty,  had  sent  considerable 
parties  of  their  warriors  to  assist  the  British  in  their  ex- 
peditions against  Fort  Duquesne,  Many  of  these  warriors, 
on  their  return  home  through  the  back  parts  of  Virginia, 
losing  their  horses,  laid  hold  on  such  as  they  found  run- 
ning wild  in  the  woods,  without  supposing  them  to  belong 
to  any  individuals.  The  Virginians,  resenting  this  injury, 
killed  twelve  or  fourteen  of  the  unsuspicious  warriors  and 
took  several  prisoners.  The  Cherokees,  highly  provoked 
at  this  ungrateful  usage  from  allies  whose  frontiers  they  had 
been  helping  to  defend,  determined  to  take  revenge.  The 
French  inflamed  their  vindictive  rage  by  telling  them  that 
the  English  intended  to  kill  every  man  of  them,  and  to 
make  their  wives  and  children  slaves,  and  at  the  same  time 
furnished  them  with  arms  and  ammunition.  The  frontiers 
of  Carolina  soon  feeling  the  horrible  effects  of  their  incur- 
sions, Governor  Littleton,  toward  the  close  of  the  last  year 
(1759),  had  marched  at  the  head  of  800  militia  and  300  regu- 
lars into  the  country  of  the  Cherokees  where,  without  any 
bloodshed,  a  treaty  of  peace  was  concluded. 

Early  in  the  present  year,  when  joyous  celebrations  of  the 


47^  WASHINGTON. 

peace  were  scarcely  concluded,  the  Governor  was  informed 
that  fresh  hostilities  had  been  committed  by  the  Chero- 
kees,  who  had  killed  fourteen  men  within  a  mile  of  Fort 
Prince  George.  The  war  soon  becoming  general  an  ex- 
press was  sent  to  General  Amherst,  the  commander-in- 
chief  in  America,  acquainting  him  with  the  distressed  state 
of  Carolina  and  imploring  his  assistance.  A  battalion  of 
Highlanders  and  four  companies  of  the  Royal  Scots  were 
accordingly  sent  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Montgom- 
ery for  the  relief  of  that  province.  Before  the  end  of  April 
(1760)  Montgomery  landed  his  troops  in  Carolina  and 
encamped  at  Monk's  Corner.  A  few  weeks  after  his  arrival 
he  marched  to  the  Congaree,  where  he  was  joined  by  the 
whole  force  of  the  province,  and  immediately  set  out  for  the 
Cherokee  country.  After  burning  all  the  towns  in  the 
lower  nation,  in  which  sixty  Indians  were  killed  and  forty 
made  prisoners,  he  marched  to  the  relief  of  Fort  Prince 
George,  which  was  invested  by  the  savages.  After  reliev- 
ing that  fort,  finding  the  Indians  not  disposed  to  listen  to 
proposals  of  accommodation,  he  marched  forward  through 
the  dismal  wilderness,  where  he  encountered  many  hard- 
ships and  dangers,  until  he  came  within  five  miles  of 
Etchoe,  the  lowest  town  in  the  middle  settlements.  Here 
he  found  a  deep  valley  covered  with  bushes,  in  the  middle 
of  which  was  a  muddy  river,  with  steep  clay  banks.  Col- 
onel Morrison,  who  commanded  a  company  of  rangers, 
had  orders  to  advance  and  scour  the  thicket,  but  scarcely 
had  he  entered  it,  when  the  Indians,  springing  from  their 
covert,  fired  upon  them  and  killed  the  captain  and  many 
of  his  men.  The  light  infantry  and  grenadiers  being  now 
ordered  to  advance  against  the  invisible  enemy,  a  heavy 
fire  began  on  both  sides.  Colonel  Montgomery,  finding 
the  number  of  the  Indians  to  be  great,  and  their  determina- 
tion to  dispute  this  pass  obstinate,  ordered  the  Royal  Scots 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  473 

to  advance  between  the  enemy  and  a  rising  ground  on  the 
right,  while  the  Highlanders  marched  toward  the  left,  to 
sustain  the  infantry  and  grenadiers.  The  Indians  at  length 
giving  way,  and  having  taken  possession  of  a  hill,  con- 
tinued still  to  retreat  as  the  army  advanced.  Montgomery 
gave  orders  to  the  line  to  face  about  and  march  directly 
for  Etchoe.  The  enemy,  observing  this  movement,  got  be- 
hind the  hill  and  ran  to  alarm  their  wives  and  children. 
Perceiving  the  difficulty  and  hazard  of  a  further  pursuit  the 
English  commander  gave  orders  for  a  retreat,  which  was 
conducted  with  great  regularity  to  Fort  Prince  George. 
During  this  action,  which  continued  above  an  hour.  Colonel 
Montgomery  had  twenty  men  killed  and  seventy-six 
wounded. 

To  revenge  this  invasion,  the  Cherokees  blockaded  Fort 
Loudoun,  situated  near  the  confines  of  Virginia.  This  post, 
consisting  of  200  men  commanded  by  Captain  Demere, 
being  150  miles  from  Charleston,  was  cut  ofif  from  all  com- 
munication with  the  English.  The  garrison,  having  sub- 
sisted some  time  on  horseflesh,  was  ultimately  reduced  to 
such  extremity  as  to  be  obliged  to  surrender  the  place  on 
capitulation.  The  troops  were  to  march  out  with  their 
ammunition  and  baggage,  and  to  be  conducted  to  Virginia 
or  Fort  Prince  George,  but  after  marching  about  fifteen 
miles  from  the  fort  they  were  at  night  deserted  by  their 
attendants,  and  the  next  morning  surrounded  by  the  In- 
dians, who  poured  in  a  heavy  fire  upon  them,  accompanied 
with  the  most  hideous  yells.  Captain  Demere,  with  three 
other  officers  and  about  twenty-six  privates,  fell  at  the  first 
onset.  The  rest  were  made  prisoners,  and  after  being  kept 
some  time  in  a  miserable  state  of  captivity  were  redeemed 
by  the  province  at  a  great  expense.  The  Cherokees  could 
at  this  time  bring  into  the  field  3,000  warriors. 


474  WASHINGTON. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  election  of  Washington  as 
a  member  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  while  he 
was  engaged  in  his  military  duties  during  the  campaign  of 
1758.  Being  solicited  by  some  of  his  friends  to  obtain 
leave  of  absence  and  join  in  the  electioneering  contest,  he 
had  declined  leaving  his  post,  but  the  result  was  not  the 
less  triumphant  and  gratifying  on  this  account.  Great  mili- 
tary services  had  already  become  in  America  the  best  pass- 
port to  political  honors. 

[In  a  letter  of  September  20,  1759,  to  Richard  Wash- 
ington, of  London,  England,  a  relative  who  attended  to 
EngHsh  business  for  him,  Washington  wrote: 

"  My  brother  is  safe  arrived;  but  little  benefited  in 
point  of  health  by  his  trip  to  England.  The  longing  desire 
which  for  many  years  I  have  had  of  visiting  the  great 
metropolis  of  that  kingdom,  is  not  in  the  least  abated  by 
his  prejudices,  because  I  think  the  small  share  of  health 
he  enjoyed  there  must  have  given  a  sensible  check  to  any 
pleasures  he  might  figure  to  himself,  and  would  render  any 
place  irksome  —  but  I  am  now  tied  by  the  leg  and  must 
set  incHnation  aside. 

"The  scale  of  fortune  in  America  is  turned  greatly  in 
our  favor,  and  Success  is  become  the  boon  companion  of 
our  Fortunate  Generals.  '  Twould  be  folly  in  me  to  attempt 
particularizing  their  actions  since  you  receive  accounts  in 
a  channel  so  much  more  direct  than  from  hence. 

"  I  am  now,  I  believe,  fixed  at  this  seat  (Mount  Vernon) 
with  an  agreeable  consort  for  life;  and  hope  to  find  more 
happiness  in  retirement  than  I  ever  experienced  amidst 
a  wide  and  bustling  world.  I  thank  you  heartily  for  your 
affectionate  wishes.  Why  wont  you  give  me  an  occasion 
of  congratulating  you  in  the  same  manner?  None  would 
do  it  with  more  cordiality  and  true  sincerity." 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  475 

To  Robert  Gary  &  Co.,  of  London,  English  merchants, 
Washington  stated,  in  a  letter  of  September  20,  1759: 

"  I  am  possessed  of  several  plantations  on  this  river 
(Potomac)  and  the  fine  lands  of  Shenandoah,  and  should 
be  glad  if  you  would  ingenuously  tell  me  what  prices  I 
might  expect  you  to  render  for  tobaccos  made  thereon,  of 
the  same  seed  as  that  of  the  estate's,  and  managed  in  every 
respect  in  the  same  manner  as  the  best  tobaccos  on  James 
and  York  rivers  are." 

In  a  very  large  order  for  goods  to  be  sent  from  London, 
the  following  items  appear:  Busts  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  of  JuHus  Gsesar,  of  Gharles  XIL  of  Sweden,  and  of 
the  King  of  Prussia;  these  not  to  exceed  fifteen  inches  in 
height;  and  two  smaller  busts,  of  Prince  Eugene  and  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough. 

In  a  letter  of  August  10,  1760,  Washington  speaks  of 
"  Golonel  Fairfax's  departure  for  England  in  a  ship  for 
London,"  and  in  the  same  letter  he  says  to  his  correspond- 
ent, Richard  Washington: 

''  My  indulging  myself  in  a  trip  to  England  depends  upon 
so  many  contingencies,  which,  in  all  probability,  may  never 
occur,  that  I  dare  not  even  think  of  such  a  gratification. 
Nothing,  however,  is  more  ardently  desired.  But  Mrs. 
Washington  and  myself  would  both  think  ourselves  very 
happy  in  the  opportunity  of  showing  you  the  Virginia 
hospitality,  which  is  the  most  agreeable  entertainment  we 
can  give,  or  a  stranger  expect  to  find,  in  an  infant,  woody 
country  like  ours." 

About  a  year  later  Washington  wrote :  "  Golonel  Fairfax 
very  much  surprises  his  friends  in  Virginia  by  not  writing 
to  any  of  them.  Just  upon  his  arrival  at  London  he 
favored  a  few  with  a  short  letter  advertising  them  of  that 
agreeable  circumstance,  and  I  have  heard  of  no  other 
letter  that  has  come  from  him  since,  although  I  have  seen 


476  WASHINGTON. 

some  from  the  ladies,  the  superscription  of  which  has  been 
in  his  handwriting." 

At  this  date  Washington  speaks  of  "  a  valuable  purchase 
I  have  just  made  of  about  2,000  acres  of  land  adjoining  this 
seat,"  and  then  adds:  "  Since  writing  the  foregoing  I  have 
added  to  my  landed  purchase."  He  remarks  on  the  possi- 
bility of  somewhat  overdrawing  his  account  in  case  of  a 
special  "  prospect  of  advantage,"  and  yet  says:  ''  My  own 
aversion  to  running  in  debt  will  always  secure  me  against 
a  step  of  this  nature,  unless  a  manifest  advantage  is  Hkely 
to  be  the  result  of  it."J 

While  he  was  still  residing  at  the  ''White  House,"  before 
returning  to  Mount  Vernon,  a  session  of  the  House  of 
Burgesses  took  place,  which  he  attended.  An  incident,  re- 
ferred to  by  all  his  biographers,  took  place  during  this 
session,  which  is  thus  described  by  Mr.  Wirt  in  his  "  Life 
of  Patrick  Henry :  " 

By  a  vote  of  the  House,  the  Speaker,  Mr.  Robinson,  was 
directed  to  return  their  thanks  to  Colonel  Washington,  on 
behalf  of  the  Colony,  for  the  distinguished  military  services 
which  he  had  rendered  to  his  country.  As  soon  as  Colonel 
Washington  took  his  seat,  Mr.  Robinson,  in  obedience  to 
this  order,  and  following  the  impulse  of  his  own  generous 
and  grateful  heart,  discharged  the  duty  with  great  dignity, 
but  with  such  warmth  of  coloring  and  strength  of  expres- 
sion as  entirely  confounded  the  young  hero.  He  rose  to 
express  his  acknowledgments  for  the  honor,  but  such  was 
his  trepidation  and  confusion  that  he  could  not  give  dis- 
tinct utterance  to  a  single  syllable.  He  blushed,  stam- 
mered, and  trembled  for  a  second,  when  the  Speaker  re- 
lieved him  by  a  stroke  of  address  that  would  have  done 
honor  to  Louis  XIV  in  his  proudest  and  happiest  moment: 
"  Sit  down,  Mr.  Washington,"  said  he,  with  a  conciliating 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  477 

smile,  "  your  modesty  equals  your  valor,  and  that  surpasses 
the  power  of  any  language  that  I  possess." 

Washington  by  repeated  elections  retained  his  seat  in  the 
House  of  Burgesses  till  the  commencement  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  a  period  of  fifteen  years ;  discharging  his  legis- 
lative duties  with  that  scrupulous  fidelity  which,  through 
life,  he  observed  in  fulfilling  every  engagement  upon  which 
he  entered.  His  career  as  a  legislator  was  precisely  such 
as  might  have  been  anticipated  from  his  general  character. 
His  decisions  were  formed  upon  a  thorough  and  careful 
investigation  of  facts,  and  his  course  was  marked  by  firm- 
ness and  candor.  The  few  words  which,  on  rare  occasions, 
he  deemed  it  worth  while  to  address  to  the  House  in  de- 
bate, were  consequently  always  listened  to  with  a  degree 
of  attention  and  deference  which  was  the  best  tribute  to 
his  sound  judgment  and  weight  of  character.  In  the  stormy 
times  which  immediately  preceded  the  Revolution,  he  was 
ever  found  taking  part  with  the  patriotic  members  of  the 
House. 

Washington  was  extremely  fond  of  agriculture  and  of 
rural  pleasures  and  pursuits,  and  on  taking  up  his  residence 
at  Mount  Vernon,  it  was  his  settled  purpose  to  pass  in  these 
the  remainder  of  his  life.  But  Providence  had  in  reserve 
for  him  a  higher  destiny  than  that  of  farming,  hunting, 
fishing,  and  interchanging  hospitalities  with  other  country 
gentlemen.  Such  however  were  his  pursuits  during  a  con- 
siderable part  of  his  prime  of  life  —  no'  less  than  fifteen 
years. 

It  must  be  observed  however  that  while  he  was  engaged 
in  these  rural  pursuits  he  devoted  his  whole  attention  to 
them;  it  being  a  maxim  with  him  that  whatever  is  worth 
doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well  and  thoroughly.  He  su- 
perintended personally  all  the  agricultural  operations  on  his 
estate,  kept  his  own  accounts,  shipped  the  produce  of  his 


478  WASHINGTON. 

plantation  to  London,  Bristol,  or  Liverpool,  and  received 
from  thence  his  supplies  in  his  own  name.  All  the  details 
of  these  operations  were  attended  to  by  him  with  the  most 
scrupulous  care,  nothing  being  too  trivial  to  escape  his 
attention. 

The  staple  article  of  culture  in  Virginia  at  that  time  was 
tobacco,  and  this  formed  the  chief  product  of  Washington's 
plantation.  He  exported  it  to  England,  putting  it  on  board 
of  vessels  which  came  up  the  Potomac  to  Mount  Vernon  to 
receive  it. 

In  the  colonial  times  it  was  the  policy  of  the  mother 
country  to  discourage  every  species  of  American  manufac- 
tures, and  not  only  agricultural  implements  and  clothing, 
but  almost  everything  required  for  the  daily  use  of  a  family, 
was  imported  from  Great  Britain.  These  it  was  Washing- 
ton's practice  to  order  twice  a  year  from  his  agent  in  Lon- 
don, and  the  minuteness  and  particularity  of  his  orders  show 
his  habitual  accuracy  and  somewhat  of  fondness  for  detail. 
In  a  letter  to  his  London  agent  dated  loth  August,  1760, 
Washington  says :  "  My  indulging  myself  in  a  trip  to  Eng- 
land depends  upon  so  many  contingencies  which  in  all 
probability  may  never  occur  that  I  dare  not  even  think 
of  such  a  gratification."  If  the  visit  thus  referred  to 
had  ever  taken  place  we  cannot  doubt  of  the  cordiality  of 
his  reception.  His  character  and  public  services  were  well 
known  in  the  mother  country,  but  we  cannot  admit  the 
probability  suggested  by  some  writers  that  any  tokens  of 
royal  favor  which  he  might  have  received,  would  have  at- 
tached him  to  the  cause  of  Great  Britain  in  the  approaching 
contest  between  her  and  her  American  Colonies.  Wash- 
ington notwithstanding  the  conspicuous  positions  which 
he  occupied  at  different  periods  of  his  life  appears  to  have 
been  by  no  means  ambitious  of  public  tokens  of  applause, 
and  if  he  had  a  strong  desire  to  visit  Europe  it  was  un- 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  479 

doubtedly  with  a  view  to  enlarge  his  knowledge  by  personal 
observation  of  European  life. 

He  had,  it  must  be  admitted,  many  strong  reasons  for 
declining  to  travel  abroad.  Every  imaginable  external 
means  of  happiness  appears  to  have  been  at  his  disposal. 
An  independent  fortune,  a  beautiful  and  amiable  wife,  in- 
teresting and  lovely  children  to  whom,  though  not  his  own, 
he  stood  in  a  paternal  relation,  agreeable  and  distinguished 
neighbors,  an  employment  peculiarly  suited  to  his  taste,  and 
a  residence  which  has  always  been  admired  as  one  of  the 
most  delightful  in  the  world  and  which  was  endeared  to  him 
by  recollections  of  his  early  life. 

Of  Mount  Vernon  he  speaks  in  strong  terms  of  praise  in 
a  letter  to  Arthur  Young  (1783).  "  No  estate,"  he  says, 
*'  in  United  America  is  more  pleasantly  situated  than  this. 
It  lies  in  a  high,  dry,  and  healthy  country  300  miles  by 
water  from  the  sea,  and  as  you  will  see  by  the  plan  on  one 
of  the  finest  rivers  in  the  world.  Its  margin  is  washed  by 
more  than  ten  miles  of  tide-water,  from  the  bed  of  which 
and  the  innumerable  coves,  inlets,  and  small  marshes  with 
which  it  abounds  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  rich  mud  may  be 
drawn  as  a  manure,  either  to  be  used  separately  or  in  a 
compost,  according  to  the  judgment  of  the  farmer.  It  is 
situated  in  a  latitude  between  the  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold,  and  is  the  same  distance  by  land  and  water  with  good 
roads  and  the  best  navigation  to  and  from  the  Federal  city, 
Alexandria,  and  Georgetown,  distant  from  the  first  twelve, 

from  the  second  nine,  and  from  the  last  sixteen  miles. 
****** 

"  This  river  which  encompasses  the  land  the  distance 
above  mentioned,  is  well  supplied  with  various  kinds  of  fish 
at  all  seasons  of  the  year,  and  in  the  spring,  with  the 
greatest  profusion  of  shad,  herrings,  bass,  carp,  perch,  stur- 


480  WASHINGTON. 

geon,  etc.  Several  valuable  fisheries  appertain  to  the  es- 
tate ;  the  whole  shore,  in  short,  is  one  entire  fishery/' 

[In  a  letter  of  July  14,  1761,  to  Richard  Washington  in 
London,  Washington  reported  that  "  a  mixture  of  bad 
health  and  indolence  together  "  had  kept  him  from  answer- 
ing letters;  and  August  26th  he  writes  from  "  The  Warm 
Springs  " : 

"  They  are  situated  very  badly  on  the  east  side  of  a  steep 
mountain,  and  inclosed  by  hills  on  all  sides,  so  that  the 
afternoon's  sun  is  hid  by  4  o'clock  and  the  fogs  hang  over 
us  till  9  or  10,  which  occasions  great  damps,  and  the  morn- 
ings and  evenings  to  be  cool. 

"  Lodgings  can  be  had  on  no  terms,  but  building  for 
them;  and  I  am  of  opinion  that  numbers  get  more  hurt, 
by  their  manner  of  lying,  than  the  waters  can  do  them 
good.  Had  we  not  succeeded  in  getting  a  tent  and  marquee 
from  Winchester  we  should  have  been  in  a  most  miserable 
situation  here. 

"  In  regard  to  myself  I  must  beg  leave  to  say,  that  I 
was  much  overcome  with  the  fatigue  of  the  ride  and 
weather  together.  Our  journey  was  not  of  the  most 
agreeable  sort,  through  such  weather  and  such  roads  as 
we  had  to  encounter;  these  last  for  twenty  or  twenty-five 
miles  from  hence  are  almost  impassable  for  carriages,  not 
so  much  from  the  mountainous  country  (but  this  in  fact 
is  very  rugged)  as  from'  trees  that  have  fallen  across  the 
road  and  rendered  the  way  intolerable.  However,  I  think 
my  fevers  are  a  good  deal  abated,  although  my  pains  grow 
rather  worse,  and  my  sleep  equally  disturbed.  What  ef- 
fect the  waters  may  have  upon  me  I  can't  say  at  present, 
but  I  expect  nothing  from  the  air  —  this  certainly  must  be 
unwholesome.  I  purpose  to  stay  here  a  fortnight  and 
longer  if  benefited. 

"  P.  S.    If  I  could  be  upon  any  certainty  of  your  coming, 


LIFE  AND  TIMES.  481 

or  could  only  get  four  days  previous  notice  of  your  arrival, 
I  would  get  a  house  built,  such  as  are  here  erected,  for 
your  reception. 

"August  30th.  Since  writing  the  above  I  have  hired  a 
person, —  a  Fairfax  man  returning  home  for  his  wife  —  to 
carry  some  letters  to  Mrs.  Washington,  under  whose  cover 
this  goes.  I  think  myself  benefited  by  the  waters,  and 
am  now  with  hopes  of  their  making  a  cure  of  me." 

October  20,  1761,  Washington  wrote  to  his  London 
friend,  Richard  Washington: 

"  Since  my  last,  of  the  14th  July,  I  have  in  appearance 
been  very  near  my  last  gasp.  The  indisposition  then 
spoken  of  increased  upon  me,  and  I  fell  into  a  very  low 
and  dangerous  state.  I  once  thought  the  grim  king  would 
master  my  utmost  efforts,  and  that  I  must  sink,  in  spite 
of  a  noble  struggle;  but,  thank  God,  I  have  now  got  the 
better  of  the  disorder,  and  shall  soon  be  restored,  I  hope, 
to  perfect  health  again." 

In  a  letter  of  April,  1763,  to  Robert  Stewart,  who  had 
written  asking  for  a  loan  of  £400,  Washington  alleged  the 
state  of  his  affairs  as  making  it  impossible  for  him  to  raise 
more  than  £300,  and  that  only  by  using  funds  which  he 
had  intended  sending  to  his  London  creditors ;  and  to  this 
he  added: 

"  This  is  a  genuine  account  of  my  affairs  in  England. 
Here  they  are  a  little  better,  because  I  am  not  much  in 
debt  I  doubt  not  but  you  will  be  surprised  at  the  badness 
of  their  condition  unless  you  will  consider  under  what 
terrible  management  and  disadvantages  I  found  my  estate 
when  I  retired  from  the  public  service  of  this  colony;  and 
that,  besides  some  purchases  of  lands  and  negroes  I  was 
necessitated  to  make  adjoining  me  (in  order  to  support 
the  expenses  of  a  large  family),  I  had  provisions  of  all 
\inds  to  buy  for  the  first  two  or  three  years;  and  my 
31 


482  WASHINGTON, 

plantation  to  stock  in  short  with  everything;  buildings  to 
make,  and  other  matters,  which  swallowed  up,  before  I 
well  knew  where  I  was,  all  the  money  I  got  by  marriage, 
nay  more,  brought  me  in  debt  —  and  I  beHeve  I  may  ap- 
peal to  your  knowledge  of  my  circumstances  before."] 

At  the  time  when  Washington  was  passing  his  time  in 
cultivating  the  fertile  lands  of  Mount  Vernon,  the  neigh- 
boring estates  were  large  and  their  owners  wealthy,  and 
among  them  the  practice  of  a  liberal  hospitality  was  uni- 
versal. Many  of  the  planters  were  connected  with  the  old 
cavalier  families  in  England,  descendants  of  the  men  who 
in  Governor  Berkeley's  time  were  the  first  to  proclaim 
the  accession  of  Charles  II  to  the  throne.  It  is  not  sur- 
prising that  among  them  it  was  a  common  practice  to  send 
their  sons  to  England  to  receive  their  education.  The  tone 
of  society  was  English,  and  to  tell  the  truth  rather  aristo- 
cratic. The  Episcopal  Church  was  as  firmly  established  in 
Virginia  as  that  of  the  Congregational  Puritans  in  New 
England.  The  parishes  were  large,  being  in  proportion  to 
the  large  plantations  of  which  they  were  composed.  Wash- 
ington held  the  ofBce  of  vestrymen  in  two  of  them,  Truro 
and  Fairfax.  The  place  of  worship  of  Truro  parish  was  at 
Pohick,  seven  miles  distant  from  the  mansion  of  Mount 
Vernon,  and  the  pastor  during  a  part  of  the  time  when 
Washington  was  a  vestryman  was  the  Rev.  Mason  L. 
Weems,  so  well  and  extensively  known  through  his  lively 
and  eccentric  biography  of  his  illustrious  parishioner.  The 
place  of  worship  for  Fairfax  county  was  Alexandria,  ten 
miles  from  Mount  Vernon. 

Washington  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  afifairs  of  the 
church  at  Pohick. 

About  1764  the  old  church  which  stood  in  a  different 
part  of  the  parish  had  fallen  into  decay  and  it  was  re- 
solved to  build  a  new  one.     Its  location  became  a  matter 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  483 

of  considerable  excitement  in  the  parish,  some  contending 
for  the  site  on  which  the  old  edifice  stood  and  others  for  one 
near  the  center  of  the  parish  and  more  conveniently  situ- 
ated. Among  the  latter  was  Washington.  A  meeting  for 
settling  the  question  was  finally  held.  George  Mason,  who 
led  the  party  favorable  to  the  old  site,  made  an  eloquent 
harangue,  conjuring  the  people  not  to  desert  the  sacred 
spot  consecrated  by  the  bones  of  their  ancestors.  It  had  a 
powerful  effect  and  it  was  thought  that  there  would  not  be  a 
dissenting  voice.  Washington  then  arose  and  drew  from  his 
pocket  an  accurate  survey  which  he  had  made  of  the  whole 
parish,  in  which  was  marked  the  site  of  the  old  church 
and  the  proposed  location  of  the  new  one  together  with  the 
place  of  residence  of  each  parishioner.  He  spread  this 
map  before  the  audience,  briefly  explained  it,  expressed  his 
hope  that  they  would  not  allow  their  judgments  to  be 
guided  by  their  feelings  and  sat  down.  This  mode  of  argu- 
ment so  perfectly  characteristic  of  Washington  decided 
the  question.  The  new  site  was  adopted  by  a  decisive 
majority  and  Pohick  church  was  built  in  1765. 

Among  the  neighbors  and  occasional  visitors  of  Wash- 
ington were  George  Mason,  of  Gunston  Hall,  his  fellow 
vestryman  mentioned  above.  Lord  Fairfax,  his  early  friend 
and  patron,  Capt.  Hugh  Mercer,  already  noted  for  his  ad- 
ventures among  the  Indians,*  and  Dr.  Craik,  who  had  at- 
tended Washington  in  Braddock's  expedition  and  was  his 
family  physician  through  life. 

With  these  and  others  he  exchanged  those  liberal  and 
rather  magnificent  hospitalities  so  prevalent  in  Virginia  in 
the  old  colonial  times.  In  their  spacious  mansions,  guests 
were  entertained  in  the  English  style  for  weeks  together, 
and  the  English  nobility  were  rivaled  in  the  gentlemanly 

♦Afterward  General  Mercer.  He  was  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Princeton. 


48-i  WASHINGTON. 

•ft 
amusements  of  hunting  and  horse-racing.  Washington 
himself  took  dehght  in  hunting  and  always  kept  a  splendid 
stud  of  horses,  many  of  them  of  high  blood  and  breeding 
irqported  from  the  mother  country.  He  sometimes  visited 
Lord  Fairfax  at  Greenway  Court  and  joined  in  the  hunting 
expeditions  of  that  eccentric  but  accomplished  and  courte- 
ous nobleman.  "  Lord  Fairfax  was  passionately  fond  of 
hunting  and  often  passed  weeks  together  in  the  pleasures 
of  the  chase.  When  on  these  expeditions  he  made  it  a 
rule  that  he  who  got  the  fox,  cut  off  his  tail  and  held  it  up, 
should  share  in  the  jollification  which  was  to  follow  free  of 
expense.  Soon  as  the  fox  was  started  the  young  men  of 
the  company  dashed  after  him  with  great  impetuosity,  while 
Fairfax  leisurely  waited  behind  with  a  favorite  servant  who 
was  familiar  with  the  watercourses  and  of  a  quick  ear  to 
discover  the  course  of  the  fox.  Following  his  directions 
his  lordship  would  start  after  the  game,  and  in  most  in- 
stances secure  the  prize  and  stick  the  tail  of  the  fox  in  his 
hat  in  triumph."* 

Lord  Fairfax  returned  the  visits  of  Washington  and 
often  joined  the  numerous  company  who  were  entertained 
at  Mount  Vernon,  and  engage4  with  them  in  hunting  over 
the  extensive  domain  of  that  and  the  neighboring  estates. 

Washington  occasionally  amused  himself  with  the  sport 
so  distasteful  to  Franklin.  He  sometimes  engaged  in  fish- 
ing. The  waters  about  Mount  Vernon  as  we  have  already 
seen  were  stocked  with  fish  in  great  abundance  and  variety. 
Fowling  and  duck  shooting  in  particular  were  also  favorite 
amusements  with  him,  and  in  the  late  and  winter  months 
the  waters  of  the  Potomac  river  abounded  with  flocks  of 
canvas-back  ducks  the  favorite  object  of  the  sportsman  in 
that  region. 

*Lossing,  "Field-Book  of  the  Revolution." — Howe,  Hist.  Coll. 
of  Virginia. 


LIFE  AND  TIMES  485 

[Sparks  says  of  the  social  position  of  Washington  at 
this  time: 

"  During  the  periods  of  his  attending  the  House  of 
Burgesses  at  WilHamsburg,  he  met  on  terms  of  intimacy 
the  eminent  men  of  Virginia,  who,  in  imitation  of  the  gov- 
ernors (sometimes  noblemen,  and  always  from  the  higher 
ranks  of  English  society),  lived  in  a  style  of  magnificence, 
which  has  long  since  passed  away,  and  given  place  to  the 
republican  simplicity  of  modern  times.  He  was  a  frequent 
visitor  at  AnnapoHs,  the  seat  of  government  in  Maryland, 
renowned  as  the  resort  of  the  polite,  wealthy,  and  fashion- 
able. At  Mount  Vernon  he  returned  the  civilities  he  had 
received,  and  practised,  on  a  large  and  generous  scale,  the 
hospitality  for  which  the  southern  planters  have  ever  been 
distinguished.  When  he  was  at  home,  a  day  seldom 
passed  without  the  company  of  friends  or  strangers  at  his 
house.  In  his  diaries  the  names  of  these  visitors  are  often 
mentioned,  and  we  find  among  them  the  Governors  of 
Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  nearly  all  the  celebrated  men 
of  the  southern  and  middle  colonies,  who  were  at  that 
time  and  afterward  conspicuous  in  the  history  of  the 
country. 

"  One  of  his  nearest  neighbors  was  George  Mason,  of 
Gunston  Hall,  a  man  possessing  remarkable  intellectual 
powers,  deeply  conversant  with  political  science,  and 
thoroughly  versed  in  the  topics  of  dispute  then  existing 
between  England  and  America.  Lord  Fairfax  was  also  a 
constant  guest  at  Mount  Vernon,  who,  although  eccentric 
in  his  habits,  possessed  a  cultivated  mind,  social  quali- 
ties, and  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  world.  To  these  may 
be  added  a  large  circle  of  relatives  and  acquaintances,  who 
sought  his  society,  and  to  whom  his  house  was  always 
open."] 

One  of  Washington's  habits  shows  the  same  disinter- 
ested character  which  marked  his  great  public  acts.    This 


486  WASHINGTON. 

is  his  invariable  willingness  to  make  himself  useful  to  his 
friends  and  neighbors  by  acts  of  kindness.  His  corre- 
spondence abounds  with  evidence  of  the  readiness  with 
which  he  undertook  trusts,  acted  in  arbitrations,  executed 
commissions  for  persons  at  a  distance,  gave  information 
on  disputed  points,  and  answered  with  courtesy  the  letters 
of  persons  who  really  had  no  particular  claim  to  his  at- 
tention. All  such  offices  of  kindness  he  found  time  to  dis- 
charge notwithstanding  the  many  and  various  demands 
upon  his  time  arising  from  the  personal  oversight  of  his 
estate,  the  management  of  his  shipments  abroad,  and  im- 
ports of  his  own  supplies,  and  the  keeping  of  his  own  ac- 
counts —  to  say  nothing  of  his  duties  as  host  to  the  many 
visitors  whom  his  well-known  hospitality  attracted  to 
Mount  Vernon. 

Among  the  tasks  which  he  voluntarily  imposed  upon 
himself  in  this  spirit  of  disinterested  kindness  was  that  of 
taking  care  that  justice  was  done  to  the  Virginia  soldiers 
who  had  served  under  his  command  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  and  who  had  thus  become  entitled  to  certain  grants 
of  land.  His  office  of  commissioner  for  settling  the  mili- 
tary accounts  of  the  Colony  enabled  him  to  exert  himself 
effectually  in  this  matter. 

During  the  early  part  of  the  period  which  followed  his 
marriage  and  settlement  at  Mount  Vernon,  he  joined  a 
company  who  had  undertaken  to  drain  the  Great  Dismal 
swamp  on  the  borders  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina, 
with  a  view  of  using  the  land  for  agricultural  purposes, 
and  he  actually  visited  and  explored  this  formidable  and 
almost  inaccessible  tract.  The  chartering  of  the  Dismal 
Swamp  Company  by  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses 
at  its  next  session  led  to  important  results.  We  shall  see 
in  the  sequel  that  this  was  by  no  means  the  only  instance 
of  Washington's  active  promotion  of  the  cause  of  internal 
improvement. 


;^»t*i»t'^»i»t»i>t»^ 


